US Senator John McCain has sparked a war of words with North Korea after describing its dictator Kim Jong-un as a “crazy fat kid” in a TV interview.

Mr McCain’s assessment of Kim, 33, came just a few months after China blocked internet searches on the taboo subject “Kim Fatty the Third”, something not well received in Pyongyang.

The Korean Central News Agency, widely viewed as the mouthpiece of the reclusive regime, denounced the remarks as “a grave provocation” that were a “little short of a declaration of war,” reported the Daily Caller.

Mr McCain told MSNBC’s Greta van Susteren in an interview on March 22 that the “crazy fat kid that’s running North Korea” is far worse than some of history’s worst dictators.