US questions Kim Jong’s mental health, says America won’t be bullied

After an attack by US President Donald Trump on North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, US Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday said that the country “will not be bullied”.

The US Vice President further said that “America will not be threatened”, adding that the country “has managed to marshal an unprecedented amount of economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea”.

This came even as the White House questioned the mental health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after his repeated threats to the US that he has "nuclear button on his desk."

"I think the President and the people of this country should be concerned about the mental fitness of the leader of North Korea. He's made repeated threats. He's tested missiles time and time again for years," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference.

Sanders was responding to questions on Trump's nuclear button tweet, after which some political analysts in the US have been questioning his mental fitness.

"This is a President who's not going to cower down and he's not going to be weak, and is going to make sure that he does what he's promised to do, and that's stand up and protect the American people," Sanders said.

A day earlier, Trump, responding to the latest rhetoric of North Korean leader Kim Jong un, said that he too has a nuclear button which is not only much bigger and powerful, but also works.

"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un had said that the "Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times."

"Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday.

It came just hours after the North Korean dictator ordered his scientists to build the country's biggest Inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), which would be launched in September, the 70th anniversary of the regime.

Earlier, in a televised New Year address, the North Korean leader had said that the entire US is within range of his nuclear weapons, and that a nuclear button is always on his desk.

(With agency inputs)