Trump on North Korea crisis: I’d never call Kim ‘short and fat’

The US president was tweeting in response to a statement by the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang which referred to trump as an ‘old lunatic’

US President Donald Trump: I would never call Kim Jong-un short and fat
US President Donald Trump: I would never call Kim Jong-un short and fat

US president Donald Trump has insisted that by calling him old, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had insulted him, adding that he would never stoop to the same level by calling Kim “short and fat”.

“Why would Kim Jon-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!” wrote the president in a tweet on Sunday.

Trump appears to have had his feelings hurt by a statement issued by the North Korean foreign ministry referring to him as an old lunatic. The statement was issued in response to a speech delivered by Trump in South Korea’s National Assembly on Tuesday, where he stressed that the US should not be underestimated, and that North Korea’s new weapons might be putting the regime in more, rather than less danger.

“Reckless remarks by an old lunatic like Trump will never scare us or stop our advance,” said the ministry. “On the contrary, all this makes us more sure that our choice to promote economic construction at the same time as building-up on our nuclear force is all more righteous, and it pushes us to speed up the effort to complete our nuclear force.”

Addressing a press conference later, Trump declared his belief that it was possible for the two leaders to be “friends”.

Asked if he could see himself being friends with Kim, Trump said: “That might be a strange thing to happen but it’s a possibility. If it did happen it could be a good thing, I can tell you, for North Korea, but it could also be good for a lot of other places and be good for the rest the world. It could be something that could happen. I don’t know if it will but it would be very, very nice.”

For the last months, the two leaders have been on two ends of a bitter war of words prompted in part by Pyongyang refusal to cease ballistic missile tests and the development of nuclear capabilities.