On Thursday, North Korea slammed former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, calling him a “rabid dog” that “can hurt lots of people,” and “must be beaten to death with a stick.”

It may have been a campaign ad of Biden’s that used Kim Jong Un’s photo and the word “tyrant,” which provoked commentary by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement, translated by North Korea’s news agency, read, “Anyone who dare slanders the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK can never spare the DPRK’s merciless punishment.” Biden “will be made to see even in a grave what horrible consequences will be brought about by his thoughtless utterances. Rabid dogs like Biden can hurt lots of people if they are allowed to run about. They must be beaten to death with a stick before it is too late.”

Biden’s campaign director Andrew Bates fired back by saying, “It’s becoming more and more obvious that repugnant dictators, as well as those who admire and ‘love’ them, find Joe Biden threatening. That’s because he’d restore American leadership in the world on day one by putting our security, interests, and values at the heart of our foreign policy.”

Last May, the regime called Biden a “fool of low IQ” and an “imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being,” following Biden’s campaign launch that President Trump was getting to close to “dictators and tyrants” like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim.