--- title: Read Kim Jong Un's Full Statement to Donald Trump description: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has responded to Trump's speech on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly. canonical: https://time.com/4953210/north-korea-kim-jong-un-speech-donald-trump/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-22T14:59:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:16:17.486Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Kim Jong Un's Entire Response to Donald Trump og:description: Kim calls Trump a 'dotard' and describes him as 'mentally deranged' og:url: https://time.com/4953210/north-korea-kim-jong-un-speech-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea3dc8470f4ff602/6988de19cf40a83c58c496c2/trump-kim-jong-un.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump North Korea og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Kim Jong Un's Entire Response to Donald Trump twitter:description: Kim calls Trump a 'dotard' and describes him as 'mentally deranged' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea3dc8470f4ff602/6988de19cf40a83c58c496c2/trump-kim-jong-un.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Mentally Deranged.' Read Kim Jong Un's Entire Response to Donald Trump by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Sep 22, 2017 2:59 PM UTC  Donald Trump North Korea Donald Trump North KoreaKyodo/AP; Carolyn Kaster—AP by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Sep 22, 2017 2:59 PM UTC North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has responded to [President Donald Trump’s speech](http://time.com/4949338/donald-trump-north-korea-un/) on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly. During his speech, the U.S. President described Kim as a “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission,” and said that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, \[the U.S.\] will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” Two days later, Trump issued an executive order expanding the Treasury Department’s ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea and to ban them from the U.S. financial system. In response, a statement by Kim Jong Un was released by KCNA, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. In his statement, the leader calls Trump [a “dotard”](http://time.com/4952750/kim-jong-un-donald-trump-dotard-north-korea/) — a person in a state of “senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness,” according to Merriam-Webster — and describes him as “mentally deranged.” Read his remarks in full below. --- > “” --- Read Kim Jong Un's Full Statement to Donald Trump ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4953210/north-korea-kim-jong-un-speech-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4953210/north-korea-kim-jong-un-speech-donald-trump/"},"headline":"'Mentally Deranged.' 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