A senior North Korean official called President Donald Trump a “heedless and erratic old man”, resuming insults of the American leader that were set aside during a rare thaw in relations.
Kim Yong Chol, a governing party vice chairman, launched the strongest salvo yet in a war of words that has rekindled in recent days.
He rebuked the US president over his own rhetoric and pointed to remarks by Trump on Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had “far too much to lose”.
Those comments indicated Trump is “an old man bereft of patience”, the North Korean official said.
“The time when we cannot but call him a ‘dotard’ again may come. We have nothing more to lose,” a statement carried in state news agency KCNA quoted Kim Yong-chol as saying.
North Korea had lauded a “special relationship” between Trump and Kim even as it criticised other US officials and their “gangster-like” demands during deadlocked talks. However, Pyongyang bristled last week after Trump again referred to Kim as “Rocket Man”, a nickname the president used early in his term.
Tensions have been rising in recent weeks as a year-end deadline, set by North Korea for Washington to soften its stance in negotiations, approaches. Pyongyang has conducted a series of weapons tests and issued strongly-worded statements.
Though Trump regularly exchanged insults with North Korea in the first years of his term, both sides abandoned personal attacks after Trump met Kim in Singapore in 2018.
