The insults capped a week in which the U.S. president threatened to destroy North Korea if necessary and applied tough new sanctions.
U.N. ambassador’s star rises within the White House as Rex Tillerson continues to struggle at State. But Tillerson dismissed rumors of a shake-up.
Kim Jong Un on Thursday reacted angrily to Trump's remarks and actions this week, calling the president a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” and Trump's earlier speech at the U.N. “unprecedented rude nonsense.”
The secretary of state seemed to be caught off guard while briefing reporters after Trump had spoken earlier in the day.
In his U.N. speech, Hassan Rouhani ripped “rogue newcomers” to world politics.
He called on world leaders to rally in the fight to defeat murderous regimes and “loser terrorists.”
"We will have no choice but to destroy North Korea,” Trump said, before calling the North Korean leader by a nickname he gave him over the weekend. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself.”
The president’s nationalist agenda has led to widespread anxiety among the American allies and partners gathered for the U.N. General Assembly.
Without mentioning Trump by name during his opening remarks, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian lamented an “increasing breakdown of international cooperation” and “withdrawal out of fear or selfishness.”
President Trump, who referred to Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man” in a Sunday morning tweet, will confront the looming crisis at his first U.N. General Assembly meeting this week.
