North Korea says Trump is a ‘psychopath’ who may launch a preemptive strike

This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on June 20 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visiting a newly built dental sanitary goods factory. (KCNA via KNS/Agence France-Presse)

A commentary published in a North Korean state newspaper Thursday calls President Trump a “psychopath” — and suggests that he would launch a preemptive strike on North Korea to distract from domestic political problems.

The accusations, published in government mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun, come at an especially fraught time. Just two days earlier Trump had condemned the “brutality of the North Korean regime” after the death of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was detained in North Korea for nearly a year and a half.

Warmbier's death has considerably strained tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, which have long been at loggerheads over North Korea's nuclear missile program and the installation of a controversial American missile defense system in South Korea.

The Rodong Sinmun commentary suggests that the U.S. government is suffering from its own crisis, which could include “the impeachment of Trump,” and that the president is now considering a preemptive strike against North Korea because of his “tough situation” at home. The commentary asserts that President Harry Truman entered the Korean War in 1950 in a bid to distract from economic problems in the United States and that President Bill Clinton launched a military attack on Iraq in 1998 when faced with an investigation of his sex life.

South Korea should realize that “following psychopath Trump … will only lead to disaster,” the commentary concludes.

The United States and its leaders are often the target of threats and insults from Pyongyang's official media outlets. However, during the campaign, Trump was largely spared criticism from North Korea — in one instance, a state media outlet praised him as “wise.”

But since entering office, Trump has been on the receiving end of critical commentaries in North Korea's official media. In May, another state newspaper suggested that he was ignorant about South Korea should realize that “following psychopath Trump … will only lead to disaster,” the commentary concludes.

The United States and its leaders are often the target of threats and insults from Pyongyang's official media outlets. However, during the campaign, Trump was largely spared criticism from North Korea — in one instance, a state media outlet praised him as “wise.”

But since entering office, Trump has been on the receiving end of critical commentaries in North Korea's official media. In May, another state newspaper suggested that he was ignorant about North Korea, while earlier this month an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman told Korean Central News Agency that Trump's decision to pull out of an international climate change agreement was "‘the height of egotism.” North Korea, while earlier this month an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman told Korea Central News Agency that Trump's decision to pull out of an international climate change agreement was "‘the height of egotism.”