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Singapore mud-sling: Trump vs Kim insults

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Agence France-Presse

SINGAPORE - Dotard, meet rocket man.On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will shake hands for a photo-op unimaginable only a few months ago.The nuclear-armed pair have hurled personal insults at each other that would not be out of place in the playground. Here are a few of the more memorable slurs.<div>MENTALLY DERANGED DOTARD</div>Kim had people around the world reaching for the dictionary when he called Trump a &quot;mentally deranged US dotard&quot;, saying he would &quot;tame&quot; him with &quot;fire&quot;.The insult, equivalent to calling Trump an &quot;old lunatic&quot;, was a response to Washington&#x27;s threat to &quot;totally destroy&quot; North Korea and came at the height of the war of words between the 2 foes.According to online dictionary Merriam Webster, searches for &quot;dotard&quot; were &quot;high as a kite&quot; after the comments hit the headlines.<div>&#x27;SHORT AND FAT&#x27;</div>It appeared that the 71-year-old Trump took offense not at the allegation of insanity but rather the dig at his age.In response to the &quot;dotard&quot; insult, he took aim at the North Korean leader&#x27;s physical dimensions.&quot;Why would Kim Jong Un insult me by calling me &#x27;old,&#x27; when I would NEVER call him &#x27;short and fat&#x27;?&quot; he tweeted.In an editorial, the North&#x27;s ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said that Trump had &quot;malignantly hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership&quot;, and was &quot;a hideous criminal sentenced to death by the Korean people&quot;.<div>&#x27;ROCKET MAN&#x27;</div>In his debut speech at the United Nations last September, Trump derided Kim as a &quot;rocket man&quot; on a &quot;suicide mission for himself and for his regime&quot;.Doubling down on his insulting language, he referred to Kim as a &quot;sick puppy&quot; on the heels of an intercontinental ballistic missile test by Pyongyang in November.Trump had previously referred to the North Korean leader as a &quot;madman with nuclear weapons&quot;.<div>&#x27;FRIGHTENED DOG&#x27;</div>In his &quot;dotard&quot; statement in response to Trump&#x27;s UN speech, Kim also said: &quot;A frightened dog barks louder.&quot;It was not the only time North Korea has adopted canine references to describe Trump&#x27;s statements.After the US president noted his nuclear button was &quot;much bigger and more powerful&quot; than Kim&#x27;s - &quot;and it works&quot; - Pyongyang branded the outburst the &quot;bark of a rabid dog&quot;.<div>&#x27;FIRE AND FURY&#x27;</div>Not a personal insult, but one of the most intimidating of Trump&#x27;s threats came in August after US media reported Pyongyang had successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit into a missile.&quot;North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,&quot; said Trump, his arms folded in defensive and bellicose body language.&quot;They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.&quot;In response Pyongyang said it was considering firing missiles towards the Pacific US territory of Guam.