North Korea branded U.S. national security adviser John Bolton a “defective human product” on Monday after he accused the rogue state of violating U.N. Security Council resolutions with recent tests of short-range missiles.
The statement by an unnamed foreign ministry official came as President Trump met Shinzō Abe, the Japanese prime minister, to discuss North Korea, among other regional issues.
The official also described Bolton as a “war monger” and said abandoning missile tests meant giving up the right to self-defense, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
“It will be fit to call Bolton not a security adviser striving for security but a security-destroying adviser who is wrecking peace and security,” the official said. “It is not at all strange that perverse words always come out from the mouth of a structurally defective guy, and such a human defect deserves an earlier vanishing.”
North Korea twice launched ballistic missiles during May, marking the end of two-year pause in tests that began shortly before Trump met Kim Jong Un in Singapore.
Analysts believe Pyongyang was testing new solid-fuel rockets that could one day deliver nuclear payloads to targets in South Korea.
The launches provoked a rebuke by Bolton.
“In terms of violating Security Council resolutions, there is no doubt about that,” he said in Tokyo on Saturday shortly before the president’s arrival.
Trump has been more muted in his comments and has avoided using the term “ballistic” — the type of missile sanctioned by multiple U.N. resolutions. On Monday, he again played down the significance of the launches.
“My people think it could have been a violation,” he said. “I view it differently.”
Talks between the U.S. and North Korea have stalled since February when a summit in Hanoi between Trump and Kim broke down without agreement.
