Quote:
The North Korean official then shocked Kelly when he said "something to the effect of, 'Your president called us a member of the axis of evil ... Your troops are deployed on the Korean Peninsula ... Of course, we have a nuclear program,'" according to the senior source who has been briefed on the meeting.
What I mean is this is the US announcing something told privately by a singular North Korean official, rather than an announcement by N. Korea, per se. IMO they don't carry quite the same weight as each other. Hell, the guy could've been sarcastic.