N Korea´s foreign minister calls Trump´s UN address "sound of dog barking"

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho called U. S. President Donald Trump´s address to the United Nations "the sound of a dog barking", brushing aside Trump´s remarks that the United States may be forced to "totally destroy" North Korea.

"There is a saying that goes: ´Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on´," said Ri in televised remarks to reporters in front of a hotel near the United Nations headquarters in New York. "If (Trump) was thinking about surprising us with dog-barking sounds then he is clearly dreaming.

"When asked by reporters what he thought of Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "rocket man", Ri quipped, "I feel sorry for his aides. "Ri is slated to make a U. N. speech on Friday.

His comments were the first official reaction from North Korea after Trump had issued his sternest warning yet to Pyongyang in his address to the United Nations, urging member states to work together to isolate the Kim regime until it halts its hostile behaviour.

If North Korea threatens the United States or its allies, Trump said: "We will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. ""Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime," he added. South Korea´s presidential office had later said Trump´s warning to North Korea had been "firm and specific".Isolated and impoverished, the North says it needs a sturdy nuclear deterrence to protect it from an aggressive US and the autocratic regime has made militarism a central part of its national ideology.

Pyongyang's stated aim is to be able to target the US mainland and the nation has flaunted the advances in its weapons programme in recent weeks, with the September test of what it said was a miniaturised hydrogen bomb capable of being loaded onto a rocket.

The country also tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July that appeared to bring much of the US mainland into range.

The increasingly brazen provocations have frayed the patience of the US and its allies.

Trump dubbed the North's leader Kim Jong-Un “Rocket man” and said he was on a “suicide mission”.

A day later Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the UN that dialogue with the North would not work.

The comments are likely to dismay China, the North's only major ally and trading partner, which has consistently called for a resumption of talks. Observers say that despite the tough rhetoric, any military response to the crisis would risk a devastating conflict that would imperil millions.

The North has fortified its southern frontier with a hefty arsenal of artillery that has the South's capital Seoul, just 55 kilometres away, in its sights.

Japan is also within range of missile strikes, while the North itself has a population of millions ensnared by the Pyongyang regime.