North Korea on Monday called U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton a "war maniac" and "human defect" after he described its recent tests of short-range missiles as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Axar.az reports citing Daily Sabah.

The statement by an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman came as President Donald Trump visited Japan for meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at which the nuclear standoff with North Korea was expected to be high on the agenda.

Bolton told reporters in Tokyo on Saturday that there was "no doubt" that North Korea's recent missile launches violated U.N. resolutions, and that sanctions against the North must be kept in place. Trump later downplayed the missile tests, tweeting, "North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me."

North Korea tested short-range ballistic missiles on May 4 and 9, ending a pause in launches that began in late 2017. The tests were seen as a way for North Korea to pressure Washington to soften its stance on easing sanctions against it without actually causing negotiations to collapse.

The spokesman said Bolton was an "ignorant" hard-liner who throughout different U.S. administrations pushed provocative policies against North Korea including endorsements of pre-emptive strikes and regime change.

"Bolton, as he confessed himself, played a 'hammer' to 'shatter' the 1994 DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework, and he is well-known as an anti-DPRK 'war maniac' who fabricated various provocative policies such as designation of our country as "axis of evil", preemptive strike and regime change," the statement read.