What’s a ‘Dotard’ Anyway? Here is What Kim Jong-un’s Insult to Trump Means

Kim Jong-un on Friday called US President Donald Trump a “dotard” – at least in a translation by the state news agency KCNA. (File photo: Reuters)

London: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has confused a lot of English-speakers – though this time not about what he intends with his nuclear programme.

Responding to Donald Trump’s bellicose warning to North Korea about the programme, Kim on Friday called the US President a “dotard” – at least in a translation by the state news agency KCNA.

The obscure word is old – late Middle English, or around the 14th century – and means senile old person, someone in their dotage.

Although, Shakespeare and Tolkien used it, it is barely heard these days. That may change, however, given the arrival on Friday of #dotard on Twitter.

Kim’s comments, where he threatened to make a “mentally deranged” Trump pay, were believed to be the first direct message ever issued by a North Korean leader.

North Korea also said it might test a hydrogen bomb on the Pacific Ocean after Trump vowed to destroy the country.

Kim’s foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, said North Korea could consider a hydrogen bomb test of an unprecedented scale on the Pacific Ocean, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.