hankyoreh

US President Donald Trump during a NATO summit in London on Dec. 4.

A senior North Korean diplomat responded on Dec. 5 to US President Donald Trump’s recent statement that the US could use military force against North Korea and his revival of the term “rocket man” to refer to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“It would be fortunate if the utterances of the use of military force and the title of figurative style made by President Trump were a careless verbal lapse, but [the] matter becomes different if they were a planned provocation that deliberately targeted us,” said North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui.

“We [at the] Foreign Ministry, too, cannot repress displeasure over the utterances made by President Trump inappropriately at the most sensitive time,” Choe said in the statement, which was released on Thursday.

“If this is meant to make expressions, reminiscent of those days just two years ago when a war of words was fought across the ocean, surface again on purpose, it will be a very dangerous challenge,” Choe warned.

“We will watch whether the phrase i.e. [the] use of military force and title of figurative style emerge again. If [. . .] such phrases emerge once again and they are once again confirmed to be a calculated provocation of the US against us, we will also start [using] harsh language against the US to counter it.”

Choe’s statement was released the day after a statement in which Pak Jong-chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, said, “If the US uses any armed forces against the DPRK [North Korea], we will also take prompt corresponding actions at any level.”

While Pak stressed “prompt corresponding actions” in response to military force, Choe warned that North Korea might start using “harsh language,” an emphasis that appears to reflect the Foreign Ministry’s preference not to disturb the framework of negotiations between North Korea and the US.

While visiting the UK to attend a NATO summit on Dec. 3, Trump said that the US could use military force against North Korea if it needed to. Trump also called Kim “rocket man,” which was the epithet he used to mock Kim in the second half of 2017, when tensions between the two countries were at their highest.

“What makes us feel [even] worse is that the figurative style was dare used at random with no courtesy when referring to the supreme leadership of dignity of the DPRK. This has prompted [. . .] waves of hatred of our people against the US and the Americans and they are getting higher and higher,” Choe said.

“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,” Choe said, obliquely referring to Trump as a “dotard.” That was the label that North Korea applied to Trump after he called Kim “rocket man.”

Choe also stressed that “the Chairman of our State Affairs Commission” — that is, Kim — “has not yet made any statement toward President Trump.”

By Yoo Kang-moon, senior staff writer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]