North Korea on Sunday labeled President Trump a “war merchant and strangler of peace.”
CNN reported that the comments came in a commentary from state newspaper Rodong Sinmun posted by the Korean Central News Agency.
“Trump called for total destruction of our state and people at the UN arena, and continues to bring nuclear strategic assets into south Korea and its vicinity, pushing the situation on the peninsula to the brink of war,” the commentary said.
The commentary went after Trump for selling weapons to South Korea and Japan while at the same time spurring “a hair trigger situation” on the Korean peninsula.
Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have escalated in recent months.
Earlier this year, Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if Pyongyang forced the U.S. to take military action. Trump also said the country wouldn’t “be around much longer” if it continues to threaten the U.S. and its allies.
Last week, Trump blamed former President Obama and others for not doing more to curb North Korea’s nuclear program, saying the world has reached a point at which “something has to be done.”
“This should have been handled 25 years ago, it should have been handled 20 years ago, and 10 years ago, and five years ago,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in an interview.
“It should have been handled by numerous — not just Obama, but certainly President Obama should have taken care of it. Now it’s at a point where it’s very, very far advanced,” he added. “Something has to be done. We can’t allow this to happen.”