North Korea stamps US’ John Bolton ‘war maniac’

NORTH Korea slammed US Nationa l Securit y Advisor John Bolton on Monday, calling him a “war maniac” and “warmonger”, just as President Dona ld Tr ump of fered a posit ive o u t l o o k o n r e l a t i o n s w i t h Pyong yang.

Ta l ks bet ween Washing ton a nd Pyong yang have been deadlocked si nce t he col lapse of a su mmit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi in Februar y when they failed to agree to a deal on denuclearisation.

The Nor t h has si nce soug ht to raise t he pressure and carried out t wo short-range missile tests earlier this month.

Bolton said on Saturday there was “no doubt” they v iolated UN Securit y Council resolutions against ballistic missile launches, but insisted Wash i ng ton wa s s t i l l re ad y t o resume ta lks.

A spokesman for the North’s foreig n minist r y dismissed Bolton’s rema rk s, say i ng P yong ya ng had never recognised t he UN bans on ballistic technolog y, which denied the “rights to existence and development of a sovereign state”.

“His claim is indeed much more than ignorant,” he said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Without referring to the weapons as missiles, t he statement said t he launches did not target or t hreaten any neighbouring countries.

Banning launches using ballistic tech nolog y i s “t a nt a mount to a demand that the DPRK should give up its self-defensive right,” he said, using t he acrony m for t he North’s of f icia l name.

The spokesman went on t o denounce Bolton, calling him a “war maniac” who developed various “provocative policies” against the North after the Bush administration designated it part of the Axis of Evil along with Iran and Iraq in 2002.

He accused the hawkish official of sta rting t he Iraqi war and leading ef for ts to scrap t he Inter mediaterange Nuclear Forces Treaty between the US and Russia, “that has ser ved to en su re peace decades”.

“He is now gaining notoriet y as a warmonger for his obsession wit h other wars in the Middle East and Sout h A mer ica,” t he spokesma n added.

“It is not a mere coincidence t hat crit icisms a re now being heard in the US that Bolton is a warmonger whisper i ng wa r to t he President when he himself evaded milita r y ser v ice, say ing he had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy,” he added.

Calling Bolton “structurally defective”, he added that the US official was “a security-destroying adviser who is wrecking peace and security”. i n Eu rope f or

The statement came just minutes after Trump – on a visit to Japan – said there was “great respect” between the US and North Korea and predicted “lots of good things”.

Tr ump ex pressed conf idence in his relat ionsh ip wit h K i m at t he w e e k e n d a n d d o w n p l a y e d Pyong yang’s recent missile launches, ca l ling t hem “small weapons” that “disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me”.

Last week, KCNA launched a diatribe against Democratic former US vice president Joe Biden, calling him an “imbecile” and a “fool of low IQ”, prompting White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders to say that Trump agreed with the assessment.