North Korea: Donald Trump Is ‘Begging for Nuclear War’

A fiery statement from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry says President Donald Trump is “begging for nuclear war.”

The comments are the latest in a months-long battle of words between Trump and the North Korean government, and come just days before a joint military drill involving the U.S. and South Korea is scheduled to take place on Monday. In the statement, according to CNN, the Foreign Ministry said Trump is making an “extremely dangerous nuclear gamble on the Korean peninsula,” and called the president a “nuclear demon” and “disruptor of foreign peace.”

Just last week, North Korea tested its most powerful missile to date, one that could reportedly reach Washington, D.C., and the Eastern Seaboard. After the test, Trump called for harsh sanctions against the Asian nation, in an effort to stamp out its nuclear efforts. He also last month placed North Korea on the state sponsors of terror list for the first time since 2008.

North Korea has been equally adversarial, last month calling Trump an “old lunatic, mean trickster and human reject,” CNN reports. The country’s foreign minister also said in October that Trump “lit the wick of war” with his aggressive comments about North Korea’s nuclear program, and that the controversy could only be settled “with a hail of fire, not words.”