North Korea rubbishes Trump’s threat at United Nations as ‘sound of dog barking’

Mr Trump has separate bilateral meetings with both Mr Moon and Mr Abe on Thursday.

As he opened a meeting with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, Trump responded to a reporter who asked if he would be taking additional action against North Korea, which tested a nuclear bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the ambassador agreed with the president’s tone on addressing the Iran nuclear deal, which he referred to as “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the USA has ever entered” and deemed it an “embarrassment to the U.S”.

Trump announced the us sanctions order at the start of a luncheon meeting in NY with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, key USA allies in the region. Trump’s staff defended the president’s comments as an honest yet provocative argument about collective threats.

Announcing a new executive order on Thursday, President Trump said the measures were created to “cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea’s efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind”.

It said he added that the U.S trade deficit with South Korea was limited to products and was shrinking while South Korea continued to post large trade deficits with the United States in the service sector.

Trump insists that military options are on the table for dealing with North Korea, but his aides have said diplomacy is the preferred outlet for containing the nuclear crisis.

Warning that time was running out for a solution to the North Korean crisis, Abe said the failure of a 1994 agreement between the North and the United States to freeze Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, and the stalling of six-party talks nearly a decade ago, were proof the regime would not respond to dialogue.

Trump noted that he’d signed the executive order just as China’s central bank “has told their other banks.to immediately stop doing business with North Korea”.

He warned the United States would “totally destroy North Korea” if forced to defend itself or its allies, adding that while the USA has “great strength and patience”, its options could soon run out.

President Moon Jae-in has previously stressed the South’s desire for peace and reconciliation on the peninsula.

Moon praised Trump’s bellicose speech to the United Nations about the threat, saying the US had “responded in a very good way”.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg found Trump’s comments about North Korea another example of “strong rhetoric and strong language”, which many pundits expected.

Trump slammed world leaders still wrapped up in trade deals with the regime and warned that if nothing is done, “evil will triumph”.

Trump was apparently referring to Clinton’s criticism of his United Nations address on Tuesday night during an appearance on CBS’s “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert.

Trump called it “a lucky word'”. North Korea later fired a ballistic missile over Japan and the USA military flew powerful bombers and stealth fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula and near Japan in a show of force against the North.

Reuters news agency said one audience member covered his face with his hands, and that loud, startled murmurs filled the hall in response.