President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte has lambasted the United Nations and threatened to pull out of the organisation after its criticism of his anti-drugs policies.
Police chiefs have admitted they are responsible for the deaths of some 600 drugs suspects since July, with local media suggesting the true number could easily be more than 1,000 when vigilante killings are taken into account.
Last week, two UN human rights experts urged Manila to stop the killings, saying they amounted to a crime under international law.
President Duterte has denied the government is responsible.
"I will prove to the world that you are a very stupid expert," he declared during a late-night news conference on Sunday.
He urged the UN to also consider the number of innocent lives lost to drugs, before laying into the organisation in a typically expletive-laden tirade.
Mr Duterte said the UN should not worry "about the bones of criminals piling up", but instead do more on issues such as hunger, terrorism and conflict in Syria and Iraq.
"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you," the president added.
The riled up leader suggested he could create a new global organisation.
"I would invite everybody. I would invite maybe China, the African (nations)," said President Duterte.
When asked about the possible repercussions of his comments, he said: "What is ... repercussions? I don't give a s*** to them."
Protests against the killings have been held outside the country's Department of Justice
Mr Duterte came to power in May and had a similarly ruthless approach to crime in his home city of Davao, where he was mayor for over two decades.
During his election campaign, he promised to kill 100,000 people and dump so many bodies in Manila Bay that fish would get fat from feeding on them.
On the day he was sworn in, he encouraged people in slums to kill neighbours they believed were drug addicts.
The president insists police have only acted in self defence, with other killings down to fighting between drugs gangs.
But calls for restraint are growing - not just from the international community, but also from within the Philippines.
Former justice secretary Senator Leila De Lima is planning to launch an inquiry into the killings - an act that has already drawn scorn from President Duterte, who labelled her an "immoral woman".
But he seems determined to continue - pledging to double police salaries by the end of the year, and put methamphetamine addicts, who he described as being "no longer viable as human beings", in "rehab camps" on military bases.
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