Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un’s war of words: A look back after the US President’s first year

Facing off: Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump
Eleanor Rose20 January 2018

Donald Trump’s battle of words with Kim Jong Un has upped the fear of war across the globe, according to the World Economic Forum.

Seventy-nine per cent of experts polled for its Global Risks Report believed there was increased risk of military conflicts in 2018.

Warning of a "febrile" environment, the report states: "The escalation of geopolitical risks was one of the most pronounced trends of 2017, particularly in Asia, where the North Korea crisis has arguably brought the world closer than it has been for decades to the possible use of nuclear weapons."

The Evening Standard has taken a look back at some of the most shocking moments from the public feud between the US President and the North Korean dictator:

Rocky start

Two weeks before his inauguration on January 20 last year, Trump tweeted: "North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S."

He taunted: "It won't happen!"

In April, North Korea unveiled a mocked-up video of an entire US city being wiped out by a nuclear attack at a concert to celebrate the birthday of founding father Kim Il Sung.

North Korea broadcasts video showing destruction of USA by missile strike

No time for patience

Last May, as Pyongyang looked set to conduct forbidden nuclear tests, the US military said it was ready to defend against the North Korean missiles Mr Trump previously declared impossible.

Mr Trump later said "the door was open to Kim Jong-Un under the right circumstances" and that it would be an "honour" to meet him.

North Korea did not take advantage of Trump's offer of an 'open door'

Several days later, North Korea's UN Mission accused US and South Korean intelligence agencies of planning to assassinate Kim Jong-Un.

Mr Trump told Reuters news agency the "era of strategic patience" with North Korea was over and that a "major, major conflict" was possible.

Escalating tension

In July 2017, Kim was pictured smiling broadly at an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that North Korea claimed was now capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Kim Jong Un coins a new insult for President Donald Trump
AFP/Getty Images

Kim called on his missile developers to "frequently send big and small 'gift packages' to the Yankees" - likely meaning to get on with nuclear tests.

US and South Korean forces in missile test

In August, the UN Security Council passed further sanctions against North Korea.

Pyongyang responded with fury, saying it would make the US pay "a thousand-fold for all the heinous crimes" committed against North Korea.

'Totally destroying' relations

In an aggressive speech at the UN General Assembly, the president vowed to "totally destroy North Korea."

Ramping up the rhetoric: Donald Trump giving his maiden speech before the UN General Assembly
Getty

In response, Kim vowed to take "a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history."

“Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation.

"I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire,” the North Korean leader said in a statement.

Trading insults

In November, Mr Trump embarked on a 12-day Asian tour which North Korea described as a "warmonger’s visit".

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

Kim Jong Un looks on at testing of the country's Hwasong-15 long-range ballistic missile

Mr Trump then tweeted to say: "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!"

New year, new threats

Kim boasted on New Year’s Day that he had a nuclear button on his desk and that the whole of America was within range.

President Donald Trump's first year in office - in pictures

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The dictator claimed: "The United States can never fight a war against me and our state."

Mr Trump replied on Twitter saying: "I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

Donald Trump Nuclear Button

North Korea's state-run media called the US president's tweet the "spasm of a lunatic".

Rodong Sinmun, the ruling party newspaper, lashed out to say: "The spasm of Trump in the new year reflects the desperate mental state of a loser who failed to check the vigorous advance of the army and people of the DPRK," the article said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

"He is making [a] bluff only to be diagnosed as a psychopath."