Trump you are to 'old' says North Korea's Kim.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un had insulted him by calling him “old” and said he
would never call Kim “short and fat.”
During
Trump’s visit to Beijing last week Xi reiterated that China would strive
for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but offered no hint it
would change tack on North Korea, with which it fought side by side in
the 1950-53 Korean war against U.S.-led forces.
“That might be a strange thing to happen but it’s a possibility,” he said.
After North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho addressed the U.N.
General Assembly in September Trump tweeted: ”Just heard Foreign
Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little
Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”
North Korea has conducted dozens of ballistic missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions. It has vowed to never give up its weapons programs, saying they are necessary to counter hostility from the United States and its allies.
The United States has said that all options, including military, are on the table, although its preference is for a diplomatic solution.
Trump made the comment after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam.
In
a series of tweets he also said Chinese President Xi Jinping was
“upping sanctions” on North Korea in response to its nuclear and missile
programs and that Xi wanted Pyongyang to “denuclearize.”
One of Trump’s tweets read: “Why would Kim Jong-un
insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and
fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that
will happen!”
Speaking later in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, Trump said “it would be very, very nice” if he and Kim became friends.
INSULTS AND THREATS
Trump
has traded insults and threats with Kim in the past amid escalating
tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs as North Korea
races toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of
reaching the United States -something Trump has vowed to prevent.
North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb test on Sept. 3, prompting another round of U.N. sanctions.
In
September Kim described Trump as a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” whom
he would tame with fire. His comments came after Trump threatened in
his maiden United Nations address to “totally destroy” the country of 26
million people if the United States were threatened.
North Korea has conducted dozens of ballistic missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions. It has vowed to never give up its weapons programs, saying they are necessary to counter hostility from the United States and its allies.
The United States has said that all options, including military, are on the table, although its preference is for a diplomatic solution.