Donald Trump labels North Korea's Kim Jong Un 'short and fat' in latest exchange of insults

He later offered to assist with negotiations between countries clashing over South China Sea territory, saying: 'I’m a very good mediator.'
Trump: The President tweeted the comments during his 12 day tour of Asia
REUTERS
Chloe Chaplain12 November 2017

Donald Trump has mocked the leader of North Korea, dubbing him “short and fat” in his latest Twitter spat.

The US President was responding to a statement from Kim Jong Un’s foreign ministry which described Trump as a “dotard” – an insult for an elderly person.

The President then tweeted asking why the North Korea leader would “insult me by calling me ‘old’, when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat’?”

Shortly later, Trump offered to act as the middle man to assist with negotiations between countries clashing over South China Sea territory, saying: “I’m a very good mediator.”

'Short and fat': North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
REUTERS

Trump is on a 12-day Asian tour, a trip which North Korea described as a “warmonger’s visit”.

The communist country dubbed Trump's speech in South Korea "reckless remarks by an old lunatic".

Warning: Trump made a statement about the series of recent missile tests undertaken by North Korea 
AP

Trump had said in a speech at South Korea's National Assembly on Tuesday: "Do not underestimate us. And do not try us. ... The weapons you're acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face."

On Saturday, Kim's government responded by accusing Trump of trying to demonize North Korea, keep it apart from the international community and undermine its government.

"Reckless remarks by an old lunatic like Trump will never scare us or stop our advance," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "On the contrary, all this makes us more sure that our choice to promote economic construction at the same time as building up our nuclear force is all the more righteous, and it pushes us to speed up the effort to complete our nuclear force."

Trump then tweeted from Hanoi on Sunday morning: "Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me `old,' when I would NEVER call him `short and fat?’

"Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!"

On the same day the President said he was prepared to mediate between claimants to the South China Sea, where five countries contest China's sweeping claims to the busy waterway.

Tour: Donald Trump poses with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang during his five country trip through Asia
AP

Trump was speaking in Vietnam, which has become the most vocal opponent of China's claims and its construction and militarisation of artificial islands in the sea. About $3-trillion in goods passes through the sea each year.

"If I can help mediate or arbitrate, please let me know," Trump said in comments at a meeting in Hanoi with Vietnam's president, Tran Dai Quang.

Trump acknowledged that China's position on the South China Sea was a problem.

"I'm a very good mediator and arbitrator," he said.

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