Pyongyang bluntly tells Jerusalem to
back off after defense minster calls leader "a madman."
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor
Liberman hurt the "dignity of the supreme leadership" of North Korea,
state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday. The comment was
in reaction to Israeli remarks on how the Jewish State is affected by North
Korean tension with the United States.
In an interview with Hebrew news site
Walla this week, the hawkish Liberman stated that North Korea’s leader Kim
Jong-un is a madman and that together with the leaders of Iran and Syria was
part of an “insane and radical” gang that was bent on undermining international
stability.
"The reckless remarks of the
Israeli defense minister are sordid and wicked behavior and grave challenge to
the DPRK [North Korea]," the North Korean statement read.
The statement also claimed that
Israel, while working with the US, was the Middle East's only illegal owner of
nuclear weapons.
"This is the cynical ploy to
escape the world denunciation and curse as disturber of peace in the Middle
East, occupier of the Arab territories and culprit of crimes against
humanity," the spokesman said.
The access to nuclear power is a
"righteous right for self-defense to cope with the US provocative moves
for aggression," the statement read.
The statement threatened Israel and
anyone who "dares hurt the dignity of its supreme leadership," with
"merciless, thousand-fold punishment."
The statement ended with a warning to
Israel to "think twice about the consequences to be entailed by its smear campaign
against the DPRK [North Korea] to cover up the crimes of occupying Arab
territories and disturbing peace process in the Middle East."
Last Tuesday a senior IDF officer
told reporters at a special briefing that ongoing tension between North Korea and
the US could impact Israel’s security.
The officer referred to the
developing diplomatic rift between the US and the peninsula following North
Korea’s recent and defiant attempts to extend its nuclear activity, despite
repeated warnings from the West.
He explained that Israel could bear
the brunt of such an escalation in the relations between Washington and
Pyongyang should it occur, because the US would have to divert security
resources from the Middle East to Korea.
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