MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to take tough measures to respond to a recent speech by US President Donald Trump in a statement published by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency on Friday.
On Tuesday, Trump said in his address to the UN General Assembly: "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."
Commenting on the speech, Kim Jong Un said that instead of "making remarks of any persuasive power that can be viewed to be helpful to defusing tension, he made unprecedented rude nonsense one has never heard from any of his predecessors." He also compared the US president’s speech to the barking of "a frightened dog."
"Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history that he would destroy the DPRK, we will consider with seriousness exercisisng of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasures in history," the statement reads. "I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire."
In the North Korean leader’s opinion, Trump has rendered the world restless after taking office "through threats and blackmail against all countries in the world." "He is unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country, and he is surely a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire, rather than a politician," he said.
According to Kim Jong Un, such statements only convince him that he had chosen the right policy.
"His remarks which described the U.S. option through straightforward expression of his will have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last," he said.
Kim did not elaborate on what measures would be taken, but North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was quoted as saying in New York by Yonhap that North Korea may consider the most powerful test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.
"We have no idea of what measures may be taken, because it’s up to leader Kim Jong Un who is to order them," he said.
On September 3, North Korea officially announced a successful test of a hydrogen bomb that could be used as a warhead for an intercontinental ballistic missile. The news met tough reaction of the world community. South Korea and the United States said they did not rule out a possible military response to North Korea’s actions. Russia’s Foreign Ministry called on all concerned parties to immediately resume dialogue and talks, saying that this is the only way to solve the problems of the Korean Peninsula.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution to toughen North Korea sanctions on September 12.