North Korea’s state media on Friday stepped up a personal attack on former US Vice President Joe Biden for slandering its leader, calling the Democratic presidential candidate “a rabid dog” that needed to be put down. The official KCNA news agency did not say how Biden had insulted the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, but the 2020 presidential hopeful has been critical of US President Donald Trump’s policy, saying he was coddling a murderous dictator. Misspelling Biden’s name, KCNA said the former vice president was showing signs of “the final stage of dementia”, and the “time has come for him to depart his life”. In a commentary, it said, “Such a guy had the temerity to dare slander the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK,” using the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.–DT