SEOUL (AP) - North Korea insulted US President Donald Trump again on Monday (Dec 9), calling him a "thoughtless and sneaky old man" after he tweeted that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wouldn't want to abandon a special relationship between the two leaders and affect the American presidential election by resuming hostile acts.

A senior North Korean official, former nuclear negotiator Kim Yong Chol, said in a statement that his country wouldn't cave in to US pressure because it has nothing to lose and accused the Trump administration of attempting to buy time ahead of an end-of-year deadline set by Kim Jong Un for Washington to salvage nuclear talks.

Nuclear negotiations faltered after a February summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam broke down when the US side rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Kim has said North Korea will seek a "new way" if the US maintains its sanctions and pressure, and issued the deadline for the Trump administration to offer mutually acceptable terms for a deal.