North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

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North Korea threatened Israel after Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “insane and radical.”

North Korea threatened Israel on Saturday after Defense Minister Liberman stated last week that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “insane and radical.”

Pyongyang responded with strong rhetoric, calling Israel a threat to world peace and claiming the Jewish state possesses nuclear weapons, but refuses to acknowledge the fact.

In a statement from state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea said, “The reckless remarks of the Israeli defense minister are sordid and wicked behavior and grave challenge to the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea].”

“This is the cynical ploy to escape the world denunciation and curse as disturber of peace in the Middle East, occupier of the Arab territories and culprit of crimes against humanity,” the KCNA statement read.

Israel had “hurt the dignity of its supreme leadership,” and North Korea warned that Israel would encounter a “merciless, thousand-fold punishment.”

Finally, North Korea warned Israel to “think twice about the consequences to be entailed by its smear campaign against the DPRK to cover up the crimes of occupying Arab territories and disturbing peace process in the Middle East.”

North Korea was responding to remarks made by Liberman in an interview with Israel’s Walla News, in which he referred to Kim Jong-un as a “madman” working with an evil axis of powers comprising Iran, Syria, and the Hezbollah terror group.

Addressing a conference at Netanya Academic College on Tuesday evening, Liberman said that North Korea, not Iran, currently presents the greatest threat to global and international security.

“North Korea stands at the top of the priority list,” Liberman said, referring to North Korea’s recent missile testing, which, he said, “seems to have crossed a red line.”