SEOUL: North Korea on Monday called South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol “a guy with a trash-like brain” and “a diplomatic idiot” as it blasted him for using a UN speech to issue a warning over the North’s deepening military ties with Russia.
In a speech at the UN General Assembly last week, Yoon said South Korea “will not sit idle” if North Korea and Russia agree to weapons deals that would pose a threat to the South.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s trip to Russia earlier this month to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military sites raised international concern about a possible push by North Korea to receive sophisticated nuclear and weapons technologies in return for replenishing Russia’s conventional arms inventory depleted by its war with Ukraine.
“Puppet traitor Yoon Suk Yeol, even at the 78th UN General Assembly, malignantly slandered the relations between North Korea and Russia,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary.
Without addressing the worries about a possible weapons deal with Russia, KCNA said it’s “quite natural” and a “legitimate right” for neighbouring countries to keep close ties with each other.