International

North Korea: Trump is ‘sentenced to death’ for insulting Kim Jong Un

by Julia Manchester

North Korean state media said Wednesday that President Trump has been “sentenced to death by the Korean people” as Trump returns from an Asia-Pacific tour in which he made a point of repeatedly slamming Pyongyang and leader Kim Jong Un. 

“He should know that he is just a hideous criminal sentenced to death by the Korean people,” an editorial from the North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun read. 

“He will be forced to pay dearly for his blasphemy any moment,” the op-ed continued.

The “blasphemy” in question could be Trump’s most recent Twitter insult of Kim, which came on Saturday:

“The Korean people will regard the face of Trump as a symbol of wolf-like U.S. imperialism and as a target of merciless retaliation and send him to the hell he likes so much to tout,” the North Korean editorial responded.

{mosads}The editorial comes a week after the president vowed the U.S. will defend itself and its allies against Pyongyang’s nuclear aggression in a speech to South Korea’s legislative body. 

“All responsible nations must join forces to isolate the brutal regime,” Trump said. “You cannot support, you cannot supply, you cannot accept.”
 
“We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction,” he said. “We will not be intimidated. And we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground we fought and died so hard to secure.”
 
Rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang has intensified during Trump’s first year in office. 
 
Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea during his debut speech at the United Nations in September in response to Pyongyang’s repeated intercontinental ballistic missile tests. 
 
He mocked Kim’s nuclear ambitions, giving him the nickname “Little Rocket Man.”
 
Kim hit back, calling Trump a “mentally deranged dotard.”