North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un called President Donald Trump ‘deranged’ and said that he will ‘pay dearly’ for his recent threats, Pyongyang’s official state-run media reported on Thursday.
The comments were made just hours after Trump signed an executive order that would enable the United States to sanction individual companies and institutions that finance trade with North Korea.
Trump made the announcement Thursday during a working luncheon with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Trump said the measure would also disrupt other trade avenues for North Korea in efforts to halt its nuclear weapons program.
The president said ‘tolerance for this disgraceful practice must end now.’
He also saluted China’s central bank for what he said was a move to stop its banks from trading with North Korea.
That development was reported by Reuters Thursday.
The move comes just days after Trump threatened to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea if forced to defend the US or its allies.
North Korea’s foreign minister brushed aside Trump’s fiery threat, comparing it to a ‘dog’s bark’ and suggesting Pyongyang would not be deterred by the rhetoric.
The bellicose speech by Trump came after months of escalating tensions over advances in the rogue weapons program operated by Pyongyang, which has defied tough sanctions to launch its sixth and largest nuclear test and to fire a series of missiles over Japan.
Arriving in New York for the UN meetings, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho was mobbed with questions from reporters about the Trump speech and replied with a proverb.
‘There is a saying that marching goes on even when dogs bark,’ he said as he entered his hotel on Wednesday.
‘If they are trying to shock us with the sound of a dog’s bark they are clearly having a dog dream.’
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 program in recent weeks, with the September test of what it said was a miniaturized H-bomb capable of being loaded onto a rocket.