Injecting greater uncertainty into the future of a planned June 12 meeting between Washington and Pyongyang, a senior minister from the rogue state has slammed Vice President Mike Pence for comparing North Korea to Libya. Speaking in May 21 interview on Fox News, Pence said the reclusive regime could end up like the North African country "if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal." He also warned Kim that it would be a "great mistake" to play Washington ahead of an anticipated meeting with President Donald Trump on June 12. In response, North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui said in a Thursday statement carried by state-run news agency KCNA that "as a person involved in the U.S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice-president."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S. May 4, 2018. Lucas Jackson | Reuters

Pence's comments are seen as especially stinging to the North as they come just a few days after National Security Advisor John Bolton got in trouble with Pyongyang for proposing a Libya-style model of denuclearization. In an angry statement last week, Kim's administration made clear that it rejects all comparisons to Libya, which voluntarily gave up its nuclear ambitions in 2003 in exchange for the removal of sanctions. The country's dictator Moammar Gadhafi was eventually overthrown in a Western-supported coup and killed in 2011.

"It will be proper for [Pence] to know even a little bit about the current state of global affairs and to sense to a certain degree the trends in dialogue and the climate of détente," Choe said on Thursday, implying that the U.S. politician should have refrained from Libya comparisons following Bolton's episode. Calling Pence a "political dummy," Choe went on to say that Trump's second-in-command "should have seriously considered the terrible consequences of his words."

What this means for Trump-Kim summit