US Air Force bombers fly close to North Korea's east coast in show of military force

US Air Force bombers have flown close to North Korea's east coast to send a message that president Donald Trump has "many military options".

B-1B bombers from Guam and F-15 fighter escorts from Okinawa in Japan flew the mission in international airspace over the waters east of North Korea, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

The US said it was the furthest north of the Demilitarised Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula that any American fighter or bomber has flown this century.

It came as North Korea's foreign minister said Mr Trump was trying to turn the UN into a "gangster's nest" where "bloodshed is the order of the day."

Ri Yong Ho told the United Nations on Saturday that Mr Trump's insults "made our rocket's visit to the US mainland inevitable all the more".

US Defence Department spokesman Dana White said in a statement that the mission showed how seriously the US took what she called North Korea's "reckless behaviour".

The statement said the flights were a "demonstration of US resolve and a clear message" that the president "has many military options to defeat any threat".

Ms White said "we are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the US homeland and our allies".

Mr Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un have been embroiled in a war of words since the US president's UN speech and economic sanctions announced earlier this week. The president threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea if the US was forced to defend itself or its allies against an attack.

He branded Jong-un a "rocket man on a suicide mission". The North Korea leader responded by calling Mr Trump a "mentally deranged dotard".

On Saturday, North Korea's foreign minister also told the UN that the country was "only a few steps away from the final gate of completion of the state of nuclear force".

He said that Mr Trump was a "mentally deranged person full of meglomania" who is "holding the nuclear button" and that "none other than Mr Trump himself is on a suicide mission."

On Thursday, the US President announced more economic sanctions against the impoverished and isolated country, targeting foreign companies that deal with the North.

"North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world and it is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal, rogue regime," Mr Trump said as he joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a meeting in New York.