North Korea threatened to revive a derogatory nickname for President Trump after he outraged the country by referring to leader Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man” again.
While in London for a NATO summit, Trump mentioned that Kim “likes sending rockets up” and said, “That’s why I call him Rocket Man.”
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Choe Son Hui, the first vice foreign minister, said that the comment angered leadership in the hermit nation and warned that North Korea will begin using its own demeaning language to refer to Trump if he doesn’t stop.
“If any language and expressions stoking the atmosphere of confrontation are used once again on purpose at a crucial moment as now, that must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a dotard,” she said.
The Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines dotard as “a person in his or her dotage; foolish and doddering old person,” while dotage means being in a “feeble and childish state due to old age; senility.”
North Korea first used the word to describe Trump after he delivered a 2017 speech to the United Nations General Assembly where he threatened to annihilate North Korea and called Kim “Rocket Man.”
“I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire,” Kim said in response to the speech.
The word quickly went viral and searches for the phrase’s definition spiked.
