The statement from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) accused the president of using "bellicose and irresponsible rhetoric," which is "hysteric spasmodic symptoms" of his mental derangement.
Trump, KCNA added, has "disclosed his true nature as a nuclear war maniac before the world and was diagnosed by the outlet as ‘incurably mentally deranged.'"
Amid the insults was perhaps an unintentional compliment, as the KCNA release also called Trump the "master of the invective," essentially praising Trump's trash-talking skills.
While Trump's Asia tour is expected to take him through Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, it's a country he won't be visiting that is the centerpiece of the trip. Trump is expected to speak to Japanese, South Korean and Chinese leaders about the ongoing crisis on the Korean Peninsula, which has lasted for almost seven months with no signs of ending.
The crisis began in earnest in April when Trump ordered a US aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson, to the Korean Peninsula in response to Pyongyang test-firing a missile that came within miles of the Japanese mainland. Since then, North Korea has conducted nine missile tests and one nuclear test while the US bloc continues to concentrate military power in the region, rehearsing bombing attacks on the communist country and sending attack aircraft to play chicken with the border between the Koreas.
Washington has also introduced a bevy of sanctions and pressured North Korea's primary economic and political benefactor, China, to distance itself from the DPRK. Trump is expected to try to convince Chinese President Xi Jinping to halt coal and oil exports to Pyongyang, as well as put an end to financial partnerships between the two Asian nations.
Leaders from both nations have indulged in bellicose and aspersive rhetoric. Trump has nicknamed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "Little Rocket Man" and vowed to "totally destroy North Korea" if it attacks the US or its allies. Kim "is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime," said Trump during his UN General Assembly speech in September.
But North Korea is unlikely to surrender its nuclear program, according to sources such as Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Lee allegedly told Trump that Kim is concerned that he will meet the same fate as dictators like Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Gaddafi surrendered his nuclear program under US pressure and was later deposed and killed by his own people in a US-supported revolt. Saddam was also deposed and killed by the Americans when the US launched a "preemptive strike" on faulty intelligence that Saddam was developing nuclear and biochemical weapons of mass destruction.
"Lee said it's probably impossible for Kim to become convinced that the United States doesn't want to overthrow him," a source who overheard Lee and Trump's conversation told Reuters. "They're super-paranoid."
