North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un recently referred to as ”Rocket Man” and threatened with annihilation by U.S. President Donald Trump, spewed venom in response, promising to “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.” The supreme leader’s vitriolic statement was released by official Korean Central News Agency.
Earlier this week President Donald Trump in his first, rather contentious, address to the United Nations General Assembly had threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea.
“No nation on Earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles. The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime,” Trump said.
Kim Jong-un, who is known to have made threats against the U.S in the past , said in his Thursday statement, “Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history that he would destroy the DPRK, we will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.”
Kim Jong-un further said that he “will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK.”
The North Korean leader ended his diatribe saying “Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U. S. dotard with fire.”
While the threats from both sides may have been clear and present, on a lighter note, it was the use of the word “dotard” that captured the attention of Americans who went on a tweeting spree having a field day at the expense of POTUS. However, in all fairness, the word “dotard” is the translated version – the Korean connotation is more like “lunatic old man.”
Many Americans, unfamiliar with the dated word, made a dash for the dictionary as confirmed by Merriam-Webster who said that online searches for the word were “high as a kite.” However, this time around they were searching for a word which actually exists unlike the word “”covfefe” coined by Trump – it’s okay to laugh out loud.
This tweet says it all.
While I’m certain no one wins in a nuclear war, I might put my money on Kim Jong Un in a game of Scrabble vs Donald Trump. #dotard
— Clever Thing Later (@CleverLater) September 21, 2017
Here’s Merriam-Webster tweeting about the high number of searches for “dotard” and her explanation of the term.
? Kim Jong Un calls Trump a mentally deranged U.S. dotard. Searches for ‘dotard’ are high as a kite. https://t.co/HztPoLSjXi
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 21, 2017
? The word meant “imbecile” when it was first used in the 14th century. https://t.co/jqrHao0R9i
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 21, 2017
Kim Jong-un’s taunting of Trump attracted some really interesting and amusing, if not downright hilarious, tweets. Here they are.
Everyone on Twitter
– OMG HE CALLED TRUMP A #dotard
– Is that a word?
– Wait…is that a real word?
– *looks up word*
– HE IS A DOTARD!
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) September 22, 2017
The so-called “President” of the United States just got out-Englished by a guy raised in a Korean-speaking totalitarian regime.#dotard
— Charles Clymer?️? (@cmclymer) September 22, 2017
I’ve learned a new word today, and it’s from Kim Jong-un, of all people. #dotard
— Jerry Cupat (@JerryCupat) September 22, 2017
Whoa. It takes a strange kind of genius to pick a word that makes everybody find a dictionary and go “Holy cow, he IS a #dotard.”
— Amy Hunt ⛺️ (@amyhuntindallas) September 21, 2017
Trump will never escape the #dotard moniker now! Who would think that Kim Jong-Un would be the one to give him an effective nickname.
— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) September 21, 2017
The English version of Kim Jong Un’s fiery statement calls Trump “dotard.” The Korean version says “늙다리미치광이” = lunatic old man pic.twitter.com/LNXWsJLtBB
— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) September 21, 2017
me laughing along with #dotard tweets but also watching for nuclear missiles to fall from the sky pic.twitter.com/pzMgf8Xi6W
— •e b o n i• | #WHY (@eboni_ebby) September 21, 2017
Rocket Man vs Dotard Man
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) September 21, 2017
The threats from #Trump serve to boost #Kim’s standing at home & strengthen his rationale for building #nuclear bombs & #missiles
— Jean H. Lee (@newsjean) September 22, 2017
BTW I had to look up the taunt ‘dotard.’ I’ve been inside #KCNA’s newsroom. They’re using very old Korean-English dictionaries.
— Jean H. Lee (@newsjean) September 22, 2017
Getting back to the seriousness of the ongoing war of words and exchange of rhetoric between Washington D.C. and Pyongyang, there is strong likelihood of North Korea carrying out another nuclear test – a hydrogen bomb of an unprecedented magnitude this time around, if the DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho’s statement to reporters in New York is anything to go by. This is what he had to say in the wake of Kim’s scathing statement.
“This could probably mean the strongest hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean. Regarding which measures to take, I don’t really know since it is what Kim Jong Un does,” the minister stated.
Meanwhile, Japan’s defense minister Itsunori Onodera stressed on his country’s need for preparedness to counter the threat of a North Korean missile launch over its territory again.
“We cannot deny the possibility it may fly over our country,” Onodera said in response to Ri’s statement. It must be mentioned that North Korea has already launched two test missiles over Japanese territory in recent weeks.