Song Il-ho, the North Korean ambassador for ties with Japan, unleashed a spectacular barrage of distinctly non-diplomatic language toward Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a statement published by KCNA Thursday.
Characterising the prime minister in such colourful terms as “idiot and villain", the diplomat slammed Abe for his inability to make a distinction between North Korea’s “super-large multiple rocket launchers” and a ballistic missile.
He blamed the prime minister for “making a fuss as if a nuclear bomb was dropped on the land of Japan” over North Korean tests and scorned the Japanese PM for “saying such rubbish as ‘ballistic missiles’ and ‘violation of the UN resolution'".
Song mocked Abe for allegedly dreaming of “making Japan a military power", despite his apparent inability to distinguish between different types of armaments, calling him an “under-wit” for resorting to clichéd words such as "provocation", "outrage", "violation", "abduction", and "pressure".
“He is, indeed, a deformed man", the statement said, according to KCNA.
The ambassador claimed that with Abe as leader, Japan is “censured as a ‘politically small nation', 'sinking island country', and a ‘gloomy, desolate country’ by the world", adding that the prime minister himself is being treated by the international community as a “poor dog and a dwarf” that “fails to enter the international political arena".
The ambassador went on to mock Abe for “knocking on the door of Pyongyang with caution", calling for “no-strings-attached talks” while simultaneously “hurling a torrent of abuse at just measures of the DPRK for self-defence", saying the prime minister shouldn’t “dream of crossing the threshold of Pyongyang".
If Japan persists in “provoking DPRK", with what the ambassador called a desire to once again feel the “uneasiness and horror with which they trembled when a projectile flew over Japan", then Pyongyang will “do what it wishes to do, indifferent to the island nation", Song said.
The ambassador was apparently referring to a 2017 North Korean test in which a ballistic missile flew between Japan’s two largest islands of Honshu and Hokkaido before dropping into the ocean.
“Japan had better know well that it will face a more serious disaster and ruin if it keeps on running reckless", the ambassador said.
Speaking Monday at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Plus Three summit in Bangkok, which kicked off on 31 October, Abe strongly condemned North Korea’s missile launches, saying they are in clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions, while simultaneously expressing his willingness to conduct talks with North Korea “without conditions", The Japan Times reported. This is not the first time North Korea has issued a strongly-worded comment regarding foreign leaders. In 2017, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called US President Donald Trump a “mentally deranged US dotard", after Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea and notoriously called Kim “rocket man”.
