TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned President Trump that he will make the U.S. leader “pay dearly” for his threat to totally destroy North Korea, in an unusual direct and angry statement published Friday.

Calling Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” and his speech to the U.N. General Assembly “unprecedented rude nonsense,” Kim said that he was now thinking hard about how to respond.

“I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech,” Kim said in a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency, which also published a photo of the North Korean leader sitting at his desk holding a piece of paper.

“I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue. Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation,” Kim said, saying that he would “tame” Trump “with fire.”

In his maiden address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump called Kim “Rocket Man” and said that his administration is prepared to defend the country and its allies if Kim continues to threaten the United States and to destabilize East Asia.

“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,” Trump said. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself.”


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