Upping the ante against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, President Donald Trump called him “a sick puppy” on Wednesday — a day when his UN envoy Nikki Haley warned the reclusive regime that it “will be utterly destroyed” if a war breaks out over its acts of “aggression” such as its most advanced missile launch on Tuesday.
“If war does come, it will be because of continued acts of aggression like we witnessed yesterday,” Haley said at an emergency UN Security Council meeting, adding: “And if war comes, make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.”
On a day when Pyongyang touted that the whole US mainland is now within range after its successful ICBM test, Trump, speaking at a rally in Missouri in support of the Republican plan for tax reforms, took a brief shot at the North Korean leader, whom he has called “little rocket man” on previous occasions.
While remarking that the tax reform plan would act as “rocket fuel” for the US economy, Trump took a random shot at Kim. “little rocket man,” he said to wild cheers from the gathering, adding: “He’s a sick puppy.”
Trump and Kim have been engaged in a long-distance slugfest in recent months. Once, Trump referred to the North Korean leader as “short and fat” and as a “madman”. There was a swift retort from Pyongyang, with the Kim regime calling Trump a “mentally deranged dotard (senile person)”. Trump has also been called “a frightened dog” and a “gangster fond of playing with fire”. At the UN Security Council, the deliberations were grimmer. “We have never sought war with North Korea, and still today we do not seek it,” Haley said, before making the comment on what a war provoked by Pyongyang will mean for the ruling regime.
Pressing for its further isolation, Haley said: “The nations of the world have it within their power to further isolate, diminish and, God willing, reverse the dangerous course of the North Korean regime.”
She specifically called upon China to stop its oil supply to North Korea, and warned subtly: “China can do this on its own, or we can take the oil situation into our own hands.” Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia urged North Korea to stop its weapons tests. At the same time, he called upon the United States and South Korea not to hold military drills in December as it would “inflame an already explosive situation”.
China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Wu Haitao, spoke of Beijing’s “great concern and opposition” over the latest North Korean test, and called upon it to obey UN sanctions banning tests and cease provocations.
Earlier in the day, following Trump’s telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the White House said that Trump “emphasized the need for China to use all available levers to convince North Korea to end its provocations and return to the path of denuclearisation”.
“President Trump underscored the determination of the United States to defend ourselves and our allies from the growing threat posed by the North Korean regime,” it said.