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BFF-17
NKOREA-JAPAN-NUCLEAR-DEFENCE
N. Korea blasts Japan’s Abe, warns of ‘real ballistic missile’
SEOUL, Nov 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – North Korea on Saturday warned Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he could soon see a “real ballistic missile”
while excoriating him as the “most stupid man ever known in history”.
The colourful condemnation comes two days after the isolated state tested
what it called a “super-large multiple launch rocket system”, with South
Korea reporting that two projectiles came down in the Sea of Japan, also
known as the East Sea.
In the wake of the launch, which was supervised by North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un, Abe termed the fired weapons “ballistic missiles” that violated UN
resolutions.
“It can be said that Abe is the only one idiot in the world and the most
stupid man ever known in history as he fails to distinguish a missile from
multiple launch rocket system while seeing the photo-accompanied report,” a
foreign ministry official said in a statement carried by state news agency
KCNA.
“Abe may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future and
under his nose… Abe is none other than a perfect imbecile,” it added.
It was best for the North to avoid dealing with Abe, the official went on,
adding that doing so with a “political dwarf” would bring “disgrace”.
The Saturday criticism of the Japanese leader is the second of its kind by
Pyongyang this month.
The North had slammed him as an “idiot and villain” and warned he will
never set foot in Pyongyang after he condemned the North’s weapons test days
earlier.
Pyongyang is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its
nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes, which it says it needs to
defend against a possible US invasion.
Nuclear negotiations between the US and the North have been at a standstill
since the Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong Un
broke up in February, and Pyongyang has since demanded Washington change its
approach by the end of the year.
North Korea has issued a series of increasingly assertive comments in
recent weeks as time runs down on its end-of-year deadline.
Trump hinted at the prospect of a fourth meeting with Kim in a tweet
earlier this month, only to be rebuffed by the North, which said it had no
interest in summits “that bring nothing to us”.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1338 hrs