Pyongyang has unleashed an avalanche of insults directed at Joe Biden after the Democratic presidential hopeful referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a dictator.
Biden was declared a “fool of low IQ” and an “imbecile” lacking human qualities by Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday.
The verbal lashing comes just days after the presidential hopeful suggested during a rally in Philadelphia that US President Donald Trump was “embracing dictators like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Kim Jong-un.”
The state news agency further accused Biden of insulting the country’s leadership and engaging in an “intolerable and serious politically-motivated provocation” against the North.
“We will never pardon anyone who dares provoke the supreme leadership of the DPRK but will certainly make them pay for it,” KCNA said.
The slew of insults directed at Biden seems to echo similar sentiments expressed by Trump, who previously dismissed the presidential contender as “another low IQ individual.”
Despite the borderline admiration Trump has been professing to Kim (angering his opponents and handing ammunition to the likes of Biden), actual progress towards denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula has been stalling for months.
The relationship remains mired by a largely unsuccessful second summit in Vietnam in February, during which the US rejected sanctions relief for North Korea.
Efforts by Washington to push Pyongyang to give up its nuclear capabilities have also faltered, with North Korea reportedly starting new missile tests in the wake of the diplomatic breakdown.