Joe Biden campaign fires back after North Korean media calls him a 'rabid dog'

Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign fired back after North Korean state media called him a "rabid dog" who "must be beaten to death with a stick."

"It's becoming more and more obvious that repugnant dictators, as well as those who admire and ‘love’ them, find Joe Biden threatening," said Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, in a statement to the Associated Press. "That’s because he’d restore American leadership in the world on day one by putting our security, interests and values at the heart of our foreign policy."

Earlier Thursday, in a commentary released through the official Korean Central News Agency, the totalitarian regime said Biden had the "temerity to dare slander the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK," using the official name of North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "It is the last-ditch efforts of the rabid dog expediting his death."

"Rabid dogs like Biden can hurt lots of people if they are allowed to run out of control," the commentary continued. "They must be beaten to death with a stick, before it is too late."

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It appears the North Korean regime was responding to a Biden campaign ad released Tuesday that included a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and called him a "tyrant."

The former Vice President has been a target of criticism from the North Korean regime.

In May, the regime called him a "fool of low IQ" and an "imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being" after Biden said in his campaign launch that President Donald Trump had gotten too close to "dictators and tyrants" like Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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The Korean Central News Agency called Biden's remarks then an “intolerable and serious politically-motivated provocation."

Trump tweeted about the North Korean commentary at the time, writing how he "smiled when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden campaign responds after North Korea calls him a 'rabid dog'