North Korea has escalated its war of words with the U.S., repeating a threat on Thursday to call off the planned June 12 summit with President Donald Trump and warning that a “nuclear showdown” could instead be on the table. Choe took aim at Vice President Mike Pence in particular, calling him a “political dummy” who’d offended North Korea with his “unbridled and impudent” comments. Pyongyang has said that its nuclear capabilities are far more advanced than Libya’s ever were ― and has stressed its expectation that it be treated as a nuclear state on equal footing with the U.S. and other nuclear powers. Choe echoed this scorn in her statement Thursday, saying North Korea has no interest in meeting the same “tragic fate” as the northern African nation. “I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice president,” Choe said, referring to Pence’s Libya comments, according to a Wall Street Journal translation.

Source: Huffington Post May 24, 2018 08:15 UTC