SEOUL - North Korea's state media on Saturday slammed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as an "imbecile and political dwarf" for calling Pyongyang's latest test of a large multiple-rocket launcher a ballistic missile launch and warned he might see a real one soon.
North Korea fired two short-range projectiles into the sea off its east coast on Thursday in a fourth test of its new "super-large multiple-rocker launcher," with leader Kim Jong Un expressing "great satisfaction" about the latest test.
In the wake of Pyongyang's test, Abe said Thursday that North Korea's missile launch was a threat to Japan and the international community, and that Tokyo would monitor the situation with its partners.
"It can be said that Abe is the only one idiot in the world and the most stupid man ever known in history as he fails to distinguish a missile from a multiple launch rocket system while seeing the photo-accompanied report," the North's KCNA news agency said, citing a vice director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Department of Japanese Affairs.
"Abe may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future and under his nose. ... Abe is none other than a perfect imbecile and a political dwarf without parallel in the world."
U.N. Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from firing ballistic missiles and using such technology, but North Korea rejects the restriction as an infringement of its right to self-defense.
In early November, Pyongyang criticized the Japanese prime minister after Tokyo said North Korea's test of what it called "super-large multiple rocket launchers" on October 31 was likely ballistic missiles that violated U.N. sanctions.