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Photographer: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Photo Photographer: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Photo

U.S. President Donald Trump revived both his “Rocket Man” nickname for Kim Jong Un and the threat of military force against North Korea, in the latest sign of rising tensions ahead of Pyongyang’s year-end deadline.

Trump revisited the name he once used to mock Kim just hours after North Korea said it was preparing a “Christmas gift” for the U.S. if the administration failed to meet its demands by year-end for concessions in nuclear talks. Kim has repeatedly warned in recent months he could take a “new path” in relations with the U.S., while resuming ballistic missile launches.

Kim Jong Un poses with the women’s company under Unit 5492 of the Korean People’s Army on Nov. 25. Photographer: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Photo

“He definitely likes sending rockets up, doesn’t he? That’s why I call him ‘Rocket Man,’” Trump said Tuesday during a NATO summit in the U.K., adding: “We have the most powerful military we’ve ever had, and we’re by far the most powerful country in the world. And, hopefully, we don’t have to use it, but if we do, we’ll use it. If we have to, we’ll do it.”

Hours later, North Korea’s state media said Kim was “displeased” to hear Trump’s threat about the possibility of using military force against the country.

The Korean Central News Agency released a statement on Wednesday from North Korea’s army chief, Pak Jong Chon, who said “the use of armed forces is not the privilege of the U.S. only,” warning that Pyongyang will take “prompt corresponding actions at any level” should the U.S. initiate military action.

Despite resuming weapons tests, Kim has refrained from detonating nuclear bombs or launching missiles capable of carrying them to the U.S. while pursuing unprecedented talks with Trump. North Korea’s deadline puts one of Trump’s biggest foreign policy achievements on the line just as he gears up for re-election.

Any shift by Kim could come as soon as the North Korean leader’s annual New Year’s address, which he has previously used to ratchet tensions up and down. The ruling Workers’ Party announced a rare meeting in Pyongyang later this month “to discuss and decide on crucial issues” due to the “changed situation at home and abroad.”

Pyongyang’s propaganda machine has kicked into high gear in recent months to show Kim as a strong leader. Earlier on Wednesday, the Korean Central News Agency published pictures of him riding a white horse through the snow on Mt. Paektu -- a sacred site where North Korea says Kim’s grandfather and state founder, Kim Il Sung, led guerrillas against the Japanese and his father, Kim Jong Il, was born.

State media praised Kim Jong Un in rhetorical flourishes about the mountain visit -- that included his wife, top cadres and military brass -- saying he rode a steed “through knee-high virgin snow,” connecting himself to “the source of the lifeline of the revolution and inexhaustible patriotism.”

While Trump and Kim have held three face-to-face meetings and lavished each other with praise over the past two years, they’ve achieved little beyond a vague promise to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” North Korea has continued to expand a nuclear weapons program that it sees as a vital deterrent against the threat of American invasion.

During their detente, Trump and Kim have held back from the threats and personal insults they flung at each other in 2017 as North Korea conducted a series of weapons tests. The president notably used the “Rocket Man” moniker in September of that year while threatening to “ totally destroy North Korea” during a speech to the United Nations. North Korea has referred to Trump as a “dotard.”

Kim Jong Un with his wife Ri Sol Ju riding on white horse in Mount Paektu, in this image provided on Dec. 4. Photographer: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Photo

Kim has balked at U.S. demands for the dismantlement of his weapons program while Trump has so far rejected North Korea’s calls for greater sanction relief. The most recent working-level talks between the two sides in October broke down, with North Korea’s envoy accusing the American side of arriving “ empty-handed.”

Trump’s current point man for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will go to Seoul later this month in his first visit to the South Korea capital since the working-level talks with North Korea broke down, the Yonhap News Agency reported, citing an unidentified official at South Korea’s foreign ministry.

Although Kim hasn’t tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in more than two years, he has reminded the region of his growing military threat with tests of shorter-range missiles, including another volley last week. North Korea responded to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s complaints about the launches with a harshly worded commentary, saying that he “may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future and under his nose.”

On Tuesday, Trump also highlighted a key source of friction between the U.S. and its South Korean allies: the president’s demands for more military funding. American negotiators walked out of cost-sharing talks in Seoul last month, after South Korea rejected the administration’s demands for as much as a five-fold increase to the approximately $1 billion it currently pays.

Trump said those talks had make progress, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was talking about an agreement for the current year or the period ahead.

“Last year, I asked them to pay more and they agreed,” Trump said. “And nobody knows this -- I’ll say it now, I think, for the first time -- but they agreed to pay approximately $500 million a year or more for protection.”

( Updates with North Korean leader’s comments from fourth paragraph )