North Korea has dismissed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a "political half-wit" for predicting its collapse and warned that Japan will never be safe if war breaks out because it is within striking range of its missiles.
"Abe talked about the 'collapse' of the DPRK, but he had better think twice before uttering such nonsense," the Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "Japan is within the striking range of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK and it will never be safe when a war breaks out." The North's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Later Saturday, the KCNA carried its own critique of Abe's "absolutely ludicrous" remarks, saying: "If Abe and other Japanese politicians continue wagging their tongues, thinking that they can stay outside the firing range of the DPRK, that will precipitate their destruction."