Yahoo News North Korea accuses John McCain of 'blasphemy' for calling Kim Jong-un 'that crazy fat kid'
US Senator John McCain has sparked a war of words with North Korea after describing its dictator Kim Jong-un as a “crazy fat kid” in a TV interview.
Mr McCain’s assessment of Kim, 33, came just a few months after China blocked internet searches on the taboo subject “Kim Fatty the Third”, was not well received in Pyongyang.
The Korean Central News Agency, widely viewed as the mouthpiece of the reclusive regime, denounced the remarks as “a grave provocation” that were a “little short of a declaration of war,” reported the Daily Caller.
Mr McCain told MSNBC’s Greta van Susteren in an interview on March 22 that the “crazy fat kid that’s running North Korea” is far worse than some of history’s worst dictators.
“He’s not rational, Greta,” he said. “We’re not dealing even with someone like Joseph Stalin, who had a certain rationality to his barbarity.”
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman told KCNA that Mr McCain’s comments were “blasphemy” and that he had offended the dignity of the country and its supreme leadership.
He added that “hardline conservative figures like Ted Cruz”, the Republican Senator for Texas, were also affronting the “supreme dignity” of Kim by proposing to relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
North Korea warned Mr McCain and Mr Cruz that they were “like [puppies] knowing no fear of the tiger”.
But Mr McCain appeared to be unfazed by riling a dictatorial regime that is known more for its nuclear weapons threat than its sense of humour.
“What, did they want me to call him a crazy skinny kid?” he quipped from his Twitter account, linking to the Daily Caller story.
What, did they want me to call him a crazy skinny kid? https://t.co/Ym3juRfBev
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) March 29, 2017
