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24th Sep 2017

Donald Trump vows North Korean leaders “won’t be around for much longer” as war of words escalates

Threats continue to fly back and forth between the US and North Korea

Conor Heneghan

Donald Trump was responding to comments made by North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho.

Donald Trump has claimed that North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “won’t be around for much longer” if they continue to make the type of threatening statements made by Ri Yong Ho at the United Nations on Saturday.

In a speech to the United Nations on Saturday, the North Korean Foreign Minister described Trump as “a mentally deranged person full of megalomania” and that his references to Kim Jong-un as “Little Rocket Man” are making “our rocket’s visit to the entire U.S. mainland inevitable all the more”.

Like Trump has done with Kim Jong-un, meanwhile, Ri Yong Ho also assigned nicknames to the US President, referring to him as “Commander in Grief,” “Lyin’ King,” and “President Evil”.

On Saturday night, Trump responded to the comments, saying that if he “echoes the thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer”.

In Pyongyang earlier in the day, the North Korean state news service reported that a large crowd had gathered at an anti-US rally in Kim II Sung Square, shouting slogans such as “total destruction” and carrying banners with messages such as ‘decisive revenge’ and ‘death to the American imperialists’.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump told a United Nations General Assembly that he would be prepared to “totally destroy” North Korea if they continued to test nuclear weapons, saying: “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for him and his regime.”