Donald Trump says if threatened, US may have to 'totally destroy' North Korea

United States President Donald Trump on 19 September in his first address to the United Nations General Assembly said if Pyongyang threatens Washington, "We may have to 'totally destroy' North Korea"

Interestingly, North Korea's ambassador to U.N. left his seat prior to Trump's arrival, as a junior North Korean diplomat remained.

Trump attacked North Korea and termed its supreme leader Kim Jong-un as "a rocket man, who is on a suicide mission".

He further said, "It is time for North Korea to realise that de-nuclearisation is its only acceptable future."

Trump asserted that North Korea's reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens entire world with immense loss of human life.

"No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals armed with nuclear weapons and missiles. The United States had has great strength and patience, but it is forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea," Trump said.

He thanked China and Russia for joining the vote to impose sanctions along with all of the other members of the Security Council.

However, Trump asked the countries to do much more to isolate North Korea completely.

Earlier, the United Nations Security Council had condemned the launch of yet another ballistic missile by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and called on the country's leadership to halt such activities and explore resumption of sincere dialogue on de-nuclearisation.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the DPRK leadership "to cease further testing, comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions, and allow space to explore the resumption of sincere dialogue on de-nuclearisation."

The UNSC referred to the latest launch as a "manifest violation" of Security Council resolutions that comes less than two weeks after the DPRK conducted a test of a Hydrogen bomb on September 3. It also fired a missile over Japan, only three days after the Security Council unanimously adopted fresh sanctions against the country.

The International community has condemned North Korea for its nuclear programme. 

-ANI