Trump and Kim call each other mad
North Korean official hints at possible test of hydrogen bomb
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un lobbed a string of insults at President Donald Trump yesterday, calling him a “mentally deranged US dotard” and hinting at a new weapons test.
It was the first time for a North Korean leader to issue such a direct statement against a US president, dramatically escalating the war of words between the former wartime foes and raising the international nuclear standoff to a new level.
Mr Trump responded by tweeting that Mr Kim is “obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people”.
In a lengthy statement carried by state media, Mr Kim said Mr Trump would “pay dearly” for his recent threat to destroy North Korea. He also called Mr Trump “deranged” and “a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire”.
Mr Kim said his country would consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history”, a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon, but did not elaborate. His foreign minister, asked on a visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly what the countermeasure would be, said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.
“I think it could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific,” Ri Yong Ho said, according to South Korean TV. “We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong-un.”
Mr Kim’s statement was unusual because it was written in the first person.
North Korean state TV later showed a solemn-looking Mr Kim, dressed in a gray Maostyle suit, reading the statement. South Korea’s government said it was the first direct address to the world by any North Korean leader.
Some analysts saw a clear sign that North Korea will ramp up its already brisk pace of weapons testing, which has included missiles meant to target US forces throughout Asia and on the US mainland.
An H-bomb test in the Pacific, if realised, would be considered a major provocation by Washington and its allies.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear test explosions since 2006, all at its northeastern underground test site.
Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera noted a Pacific test could mean a nuclear-armed missile flying over Japan. He said North Korea might conduct an H-bomb test with a mediumrange or intercontinental ballistic missile, given its recent advancesinmissileandnuclear weapons development.
“We cannot deny the possibility it may fly over our country,” he said.
Vipin Narang, a nuclear strategy expert at MIT, said such a test could pose a danger to shipping and aircraft.
“And if the test doesn’t go according to plan, you could have population at risk, too,” he said.
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