North Korea’s state newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, accused President Donald Trump of being “spiritually instable” and threatening the United States with “nuclear disaster” on Sunday.
“Americans are pressing for early impeachment of Trump,” Rodong Sinmun alleged, without providing evidence. The newspaper went on to urge Trump to listen to “dignitaries such as [Sen. Bob] Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate, and former officials” who “said that the president is uselessly escalating tension with the DPRK and he has to halt the reckless blackmail and take hands off the Korean affairs.”
Corker has leveled barbed criticism at President Trump, implying that his foreign policies would lead to “chaos” and that Trump has set America “on a path to World War III,” which apparently resonated with the communist North Korean regime.
“Nobody can predict when Trump does a reckless act. The only and one way for checking his rash act is to tame him with absolute physical power,” Rodong Sinmun‘s column continued. “If the U.S. misjudges the DPRK’s toughest will and dares to act recklessly, the latter will be compelled to deal a resolute and merciless punishment upon the former with the mobilisation of all forces. The U.S. has no energy to prevent it. Then its regret is too late.”
“We warn Trump’s coteries once again. If they want to get rid of ruin, do not make reckless remarks,” it concludes.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the main North Korean government news outlet, also published a story this weekend condemning the United States for supporting human rights internationally. The article cited an alleged spokesman for North Korea’s “Association for Human Rights Studies,” which accused America of “resorting to unprecedented sanctions, pressure, military threats and blackmails” against North Korea.
“The U.S. is just using such a mean conspiratorial racket as a lever for making up for a series of defeats it sustained in the showdown with the DPRK over the nuclear issue,” the article alleged, referring to the U.S. State and Treasury Departments condemning the brutal labor camps Pyongyang uses to subjugate anyone considered a political dissident.
“The U.S., which is just chiefly to blame for the division of the Korean nation, is working hard to violate the Korean people’s rights to live, exist and develop through economic blockade and sanctions. So it has neither qualifications nor face to talk about human rights,” the article argued.
Despite the criticism from North Korea’s state propaganda outlets, President Trump took a hard-line against the world’s tyrants in a speech in Japan this weekend, where he has begun an extensive tour of Asia that will also include South Korea and China, among other nations.
“History has proven over and over that the road of the tyrant is a steady march towards poverty, suffering, and servitude,” Trump told the audience. “But the path of strong nations and free peoples, certain of their values and confident in their futures, is a proven path to prosperity and peace.”
Reports suggest, however, that American officials may be quietly attempting diplomacy with North Korea. A report in Reuters last week cited a “senior State Department official,” who confirmed to the outlet that America is “quietly pursuing direct diplomacy with North Korea.”
Trump had previously called any diplomacy with Pyongyang a “waste of time” on Twitter. In an interview published Sunday, however, Trump said that he would be “open” to sitting down with dictators if the conditions were right, in the context of the United States’ attempts to contain North Korea’s belligerence against itself and its allies. Trump also stated he did not believe there was a high chance of a nuclear attack on the American mainland by the communist Kim regime.