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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump stand together at the military demarcation line (MDL) at Panmunjom on June 30.

North Korea responded forcefully to US President Donald Trump’s warning that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could “lose everything [. . .] if he acts in a hostile way.”

“Trump has too many things that he does not know about the DPRK. We have nothing more to lose,” said Kim Yong-chol, chair of the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, in a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Dec. 9.

Kim’s remarks suggest that North Korea believes its actions are justified and that the US has limited means of pressuring North Korea at its disposal, given the intense sanctions the North is already under.

“Kim Jong Un is too smart and has far too much to lose, everything actually, if he acts in a hostile way,” Trump tweeted on Dec. 8. The previous day, he’d told reporters he would be “surprised” if Kim acted with hostility, but he issued a stronger warning after North Korea announced that it had carried out a “very important test” at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, in Tongchang Village.

“[Kim] signed a strong Denuclearization Agreement with me in Singapore. He does not want to void his special relationship with the President of the United States or interfere with the US Presidential Election in November,” Trump went on to say. He was apparently asking North Korea to refrain from raising tensions, which Trump thinks could hurt his chances of being reelected. He apparently hopes to avoid a direct clash with Kim, taking pains to remark that Kim doesn’t “want to void his special relationship” with Trump while issuing the warning.

“Such language is, indeed, disappointing,” Kim Yong-chol said, referring to Trump’s recent remarks about North Korea, adding that “from those words and expressions we can read how irritated he is now.”

Kim Yong-chol warned that even the trusting relationship between the leaders of the two countries, which has provided the momentum for the denuclearization talks, could be at risk. “As he is such a heedless and erratic old man, the time when we cannot but call him a ‘dotard’ again may come,” Kim said, dusting off the epithet “dotard” that North Korea bestowed on Trump during the “fire and fury” flurry of insults the two countries traded in 2017.

“But if [things continue] to go this way, our Chairman’s understanding of Trump may change, I think,” Kim Yong-chol warned. At the same time, it’s notable that he stressed that “the Chairman of our State Affairs Commission has not used any irritating expression towards the US president as yet,” with the caveat that “of course it could be a sign of self-restraint.” This suggests that North Korea still puts some trust in Trump and echoes its request for a change of attitude.

“This year is closing,” Kim said, adding that, if the US has the “will and wisdom” to stop the countdown to a clash, it would be better served by investing more time in calculating how to do so rather than “choosing bluffing and threatening expressions as now.”

By Park Min-hee, staff reporter, and Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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