North Korea on Monday warned US President Donald Trump to stop “abusive language” that may offend its leader Kim Jong-un, according to reports.

“The recent words and expressions spouted one after another by Trump sound like a threat to someone at a glance but they are a corroboration that he feels fear inside,” Ri Su-Yong, Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said in a statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Advertisement

Last week, Trump hinted that the US would use military force against North Korea if necessary, Yonhap News Agency reported.

In response to that, North Korea said it would take “prompt corresponding actions at any level” if the US uses force against it.

On Sunday, North Korea conducted a “very important test” at its Sohae satellite launch site, as nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington remain deadlocked.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his US counterpart Donald Trump agreed to maintain momentum for dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

Later in November, North Korea launched two “unidentified projectiles” on the Thanksgiving holiday in the US as nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington remain deadlocked.

Kim and US President Donald Trump adopted a vaguely-worded statement on the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” at their first summit in Singapore in June last year, but little progress has since been made.

In August this year, North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles into the East Sea.

North Korea is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes and lifting some of them was a key demand at the Hanoi summit.

However, denuclearization talks have been stalled since their second summit in Vietnam in February collapsed as they remained far apart over how to match Pyongyang’s steps with Washington’s concessions.

North Korea has set the end of this year as a deadline for the US to come up with new acceptable proposals, saying that it could otherwise take a “new way.”

(With inputs from agency)