North Korea has issued another salvo in the war of words with U.S. President Donald Trump, calling a recent boast about the size of his “nuclear button” as compared to Kim Jong Un’s as the “spasm of a lunatic.”
The latest round of rhetorical tit-for-tat began with Kim warning in his New Year’s Day speech that the North’s nuclear arsenal is a “reality” and that he can launch a war with the push of a button on his desk.
Trump responded with a mocking statement on Twitter, saying he, too, had a nuclear button, but one “much bigger and more powerful” than Kim’s, and that “my Button works!”
An editorial issued Tuesday by the Rodong Sinmun, the North’s official newspaper, said Trump’s tweet simply “reflects the desperate mental state of a loser.”
Kim and Trump engaged in an escalating war of words last year amid Pyongyang’s continued testing of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including a sixth nuclear test and a new intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland.