North Korean leader ‘should have been handled long ago’: Trump 

US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally for Alabama state Republican Senator Luther Strange at the Von Braun Civic Center September 22, 2017 in Huntsville, Alabama. (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trump has said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “should have been handled a long time ago,” but “I'm going to handle” him now anyway, calling him a “mad man" and "little rocket man."

"Rocket man should have been handled a long time ago," Trump said on Friday while speaking in Huntsville, Alabama, at a rally for Republican Senator Luther Strange. 

Trump has started using the name "Rocket man" for North Korea's leader since last week.   

"We can't have mad men out there shooting rockets all over the place," he added.

"He should have been handled a long time ago by [Bill] Clinton. I won't mention the Republicans, by [Barack] Obama," he continued.

"This shouldn't be handled now. But I'm going to handle it because we have to handle it. Little rocket man. We're going to do it. Because we really have no choice. We really have no choice," he said.

This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) inspecting a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location. (Photo by AFP)

Earlier on Friday, Trump said that Kim "will be tested like never before," as the two leaders continue trading insults and Pyongyang threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.

"Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before," Trump tweeted.

Trump's latest insult came one day after he imposed additional sanctions on Pyongyang.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump warned Kim that the United States, if threatened, would “totally destroy” his country of 26 million people.

In response, Kim said Trump will “pay dearly” for threatening to destroy North Korea.

Kim said that Trump is "a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire," who is "unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country."

On Thursday, Kim described the US president as "mentally deranged" and warning he would "pay dearly" for threatening to destroy his country.

Analysts say Trump’s threats against North Korea are counterproductive and justify Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs that it insists are for self-defense. They say Trump's speech could have an opposite effect, intensifying the deteriorating situation in the Korean peninsula.


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