North Korea state media has branded US President Donald Trump “a psychopath.”
It comes as a war of words escalates between the two powers, following the return of jailed American student Otto Warmbier to the US from Pyongyang.
The 22-year-old, who was imprisoned for attempting to steal a propaganda banner, was released in a coma and died just days after being reunited with his family. The despotic Communist country said it had set free the previously healthy Warmbier for humanitarian reasons after holding him for 17 months of a 15 year sentence. It denied responsibility for his injuries.
Trump blasted the “brutal regime” of North Korea and described the young man’s death as a “total disgrace.”
The newspaper Rodong Sinmun claimed Trump was now considering a pre-emptive strike on North Korea to “distract from domestic political problems.”
It also drew South Korea into the row for seeking to use Warmbier’s case to seek the release of other detainees, including six South Korean citizens. President Moon Jae-in, who is set to visit Washington next week to meet with Trump, said in an interview with CBS television it was clear North Korea bore a heavy responsibility for Warmbier’s death.
In a translation provided by the Washington Post, the editorial stated: “South Korea must realise that following psychopath Trump… will only lead to disaster.”
In March North Korea responded with fury after US Senator John McCain branded its Supreme Leader a “crazy fat kid.”
McCain told MSNBC’s Greta van Susteren: “China is the only one that can control Kim Jong Un, this crazy fat kid that’s running North Korea. They could stop North Korea’s economy in a week.”
North Korean state news agency KCNA responded that the comments had “hurt the dignity” of the supreme leadership and described them as a “grave provocation little short of a declaration of war.”