Despot leader Kim Jong-un used his state media mouthpiece to urge the removal of the US President, after he made stern threats during a visit to South Korea.
Using some of his strongest language yet against North Korea, Donald Trump told the state he would “not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. We will not be intimidated”.
He claimed people in North Korea were suffering human rights abuses in “gulags” and some bribed government officials to work as “slaves” overseas rather than live under Kim Jong-un’s rule.
In a fiery response, North Korea’s state media agency KCNA said: “The world is undergoing unprecedented throes because of Trump, a notorious ‘political heretic’.
“The US must oust the lunatic old man from power and withdraw the hostile policy towards the DPRK at once in order to get rid of the abyss of doom.
“The US had better make a decisive choice…if it does not want a horrible nuclear disaster and tragic doom.”
President Trump gave his hard hitting address to South Korea’s National Assembly before heading to China to try and increase Beijing’s role in pacifying Kim Jong-un.
He said: “Do not underestimate us and do not try us.”
During a speech which attracted a standing ovation and numerous rounds of applause, Mr Trump said: “North Korea is a country ruled by a cult.”
He added: “The weapons that you are acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger. “Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face.”
After saying he would not fall victim to intimidation, Mr Trump added: “And we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground we fought and died to secure.
“The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens it with nuclear devastation.”
Today three US aircraft carrier groups sailed to the Western Pacific for exercises – a rare show of such US naval force in the region.
The exercises follow a number of drills by US and South Korean forces over the previous months, carried out as a show of force against North Korea.
And Mr Trump had planned to face off with North Korea by visiting the Korean Demilitarised Zone at the border with the north and south, but his helicopter had to abort the mission just minutes from landing due to fog and mist.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump was “actually pretty frustrated”.