North Korea blasted President Trump’s boast that he has a “bigger nuclear button” than the reclusive regime’s leader as the “spasm of a lunatic,” according to a report Tuesday.
“Trump’s bluff is regarded by the DPRK as just a spasm of a lunatic frightened by the might of Juche Korea and a bark of a rabid dog,” the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said, referring to the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The spasm of Trump in the new year reflects the desperate mental state of a loser who failed to check the vigorous advance of the army and people of the DPRK,” the commentary continued, according to the Associated Press. “He is making [a] bluff only to be diagnosed as a psychopath.”
The use of the word “Juche” is a reference to the country’s self-reliance and a nod to the people’s faith in the government.
The hubbub over “nuclear buttons” was sparked by North Korean President Kim Jong Un declaring in a New Year’s Day speech that his country had achieved nuclear capability and that the “nuclear button is always on my desk.”
Trump responded on Jan. 3 via Twitter that he also has a “nuclear button” but that his works.
”Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!,” Trump posted.
Trump and Kim have been trading barbs since the despot’s regime has been working to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile that can strike the US mainland.
It has detonated nuclear devices and test-fired ICBMs over Japan and into the sea as it tries to perfect its weapons program.
Trump has mocked Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and pledged to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea if it threatens the US or its allies in the region.
The US and the United Nations have also imposed a series of sanctions on Pyongyang, strictly curtailing trade in an effort to force it to curb its weapons program.
But in that New Year’s address, Kim also raised the possibility of renewing talks with South Korea.
Last week, representatives of the two Koreas sat down for the first discussions in two years.