North Korea's foreign minister responded forcefully on Saturday to President Donald Trump's fiery comments before the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week.
Ri Yong Ho, North Korea's foreign minister, said on Saturday that Trump's insults made "our rocket's visit to the entire US mainland inevitable all the more," according to The Associated Press.
He retaliated against Trump's personal attack on the North Korean leader by calling the president "a mentally deranged person full of megalomania" who is holding "the nuclear button."
Trump said at the UN that if North Korea didn't back down from its nuclear aggression, the US would "have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."
"No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles," Trump said.
The president then went back to his latest nickname for the North Korean leader, saying, "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime."
North Korea has ramped up its nuclear aggression in recent weeks and fired a missile over Japan last week for the second time in two months.
Earlier this month, North Korea also conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, one the country said was a hydrogen bomb.
In August, following reports from the Defense Intelligence Agency that North Korea could make nuclear warheads small enough to fit on missiles and could have as many as 60 nuclear devices, Trump issued a sharp warning to the country.
North Korea "best not make any more threats to the United States" or it will "be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen," Trump said at the time, according to press pool reports.
Responding to Trump's latest comments at the UN during which he accused Kim Jong Un of being on "a suicide mission," North Korea's foreign minister said that "none other than Trump himself is on a suicide mission," and added that if American civilians are hurt by suicide attacks, "Trump will be held totally responsible."
Kim also lashed out at Trump following the UN speech."I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire," the North Korean leader said on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.
And after Trump issued an executive order imposing new sanctions on North Korea, Kim responded by saying the US would "pay dearly" for the new sanctions.
Trump retaliated by calling Kim a "madman" who would "be tested like never before" in a Friday morning tweet.
On Monday, the White House also announced that Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping have agreed on "maximizing pressure" on North Korea.
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