(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte only had harsh words for North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Wednesday, ahead of a regional summit in Manila to be attended by the regime’s foreign minister.
In a speech during the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s 113th founding anniversary celebration, President Duterte said Kim was a “crazy man” who could destroy Asia by triggering a nuclear war.
“Baka nga si Kim, yung taran****. He is playing with dangerous toys and this crazy man. Di makumpiyansa sa mukha, chubby na mukhang mabait,” Duterte, 72, said of Kim.
Duterte said if Kim, whom he called a “son of a wh*** maniac,” makes a “mistake,” then “the Far East will become an arid land.”
“It must be stopped, this nuclear war, because (if) a limited confrontation blows up here, I tell you the fallout, the soil, the resources. I don’t know what will happen to us. We won’t be able to plant anything productive,” he said.
Under Kim’s leadership, Pyongyang has accelerated its nuclear ambitions, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of United Nations sanctions.
North Korea last week conducted its second intercontinental ballistic missile test, which led Kim to boast he could strike any target in the United States.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also be in Manila for the security forum, which is hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The ministers will express “grave concern” over North Korea’s nuclear missile test, according to a draft copy of the chairman’s statement obtained by AFP and scheduled to be released on Tuesday next week at the end of the ASEAN Regional Forum. (Eagle News Service, Agence France Presse)