AKIPRESS.COM - Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte lashed out Thursday at the U.N.’s human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, calling him an “idiot” after he urged the country’s authorities to investigate Duterte for murder, media reports say.

Since taking office in June, Duterte, who is known as “the Punisher,” has launched a gruesome war on drugs that has left more than 6,000 suspected dealers and users dead at the hands of police and vigilantes. Last week, Duterte admitted to the BBC that he had personally killed at least three suspected criminals while serving as mayor of the Philippine city Davao before becoming president.

“It should be unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investigative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer,” al-Hussein said in a statement released by the U.N. on Tuesday, adding that, if found to have encouraged others to follow his example, Duterte could also be guilty of incitement to violence. According to the New York Times, Duterte laid low for a day and then struck back.

“You there in the United Nations, you do not know diplomacy,” the Times quoted Duterte as saying. The remarks appear to have been made to a gathering of volunteer civilian watchdogs, according to the Philippine Star. “You do not know how to behave, to be an employee of the United Nations. You do not talk to me like that, you son of a b—ch,” he continued.