Top North Korean diplomat says Trump has 'declared war'

A top North Korean diplomat has accused Donald Trump of declaring war against the rogue nation.

He said that The President’s tweeting stating that Kim jong-Un ‘won’t be around much longer’ amounted to a declaration of war by the United States.

Foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said that Mr Trump’s statement gives North Korea “every right” under the UN Charter to take counter-measures, including the right to shoot down American bombers, even before they have entered the airspace of North Korea.

Mr Ri said that the world ‘should clearly remember’ that the U.S. first declared war.

Mr Trump attacked the foreign minister on Twitter on Sunday.

The tweet came after Mr Ri told the United Nations’ General Assembly that it was ‘inevitable’ that Pyongyang would fire its rockets at the US mainland after Mr Trump called Kim Jong-un ‘rocket man’.

Ri Yong Ho was speaking just hours after US Air Force bombers flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea.

Last week The President said he was prepared to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea, calling Kim Jong-un a ‘rocket man on a suicide mission’.

He made the statements in a fiery speech to the UN headquarters in New York, threatening the complete destruction of the country if it does not abandon its drive toward nuclear weapons.

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Trump also reaffirmed his desire to “put America first”; addressed the threat posed by international terrorists such as Isis; slammed the “embarrassing” nuclear deal with Iran, which is described as “economically depleted”; and described the US as a compassionate nation in relation to the refugee crisis.

Mr Trump, who has previously warned of “fire and fury” if Pyongyang does not back down, said: “The scourge of our planet today is a small group of rogue regimes that violate every principal on which the United Nations is based.

“They respect neither their own citizens nor the sovereign rights of their countries.

“If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few then evil will triumph.

“When decent people and nations become bystanders to history the forces of destruction only gather power and strength.

“No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the wellbeing of their won people than the depraved regime in North Korea. It is responsible for the starvation deaths of millions of North Koreans and for the imprisonments, torture, killing and oppression of countless more.”