(CNN) North Korea's foreign minister has delivered a scornful response to US President Donald Trump's threat to destroy the hermit kingdom, likening it to the sound of "a dog barking." 
 
 Ri Yong Ho, who is in the US for the United Nations General Assembly, said he "felt sorry" for the President's advisers after a fiery speech to the UN on Tuesday. 
 
 In his debut address to world leaders, Trump vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if the US was forced to defend its allies. 
 
 Referring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by a nickname he first used in in a tweet Sunday , Trump said: "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime." 
 
 Ri, in his country's first response to Trump's speech, was derisive. "If he was thinking he could scare us with the sound of a dog barking, that's really a dog dream," Ri told reporters outside his hotel in New York. In Korean, a dog dream is one that is absurd and makes little sense. 
 
 When asked about Trump's use of the "rocket man" nickname, Ri said: "I feel sorry for his aides." 
 
 North Korean diplomats were not present for Trump's speech. 
 
 North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, left, shakes hands with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk as he leaves the Pyongyang Airport on Tuesday. 
 
 Little chance of meeting 
 
 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also in New York, but played down the possibility of a meeting with his North Korean counterpart. 
 
 Pyongyang and Washington do not maintain formal diplomatic relations and the presence of North Korea's top diplomat in the US could have afforded a rare chance for high-level, face-to-face dialogue. 
 
 Tillerson told reporters he did not believe he could have a "matter-of-fact discussion with North Korea because we don't know how their means of communication and behavior will be." 
 
 JUST WATCHED N. Korean FM at UN poses chance for dialogue Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH N. Korean FM at UN poses chance for dialogue 02:50 
 
 Tillerson claimed there were signs that increased international pressure on North Korea was starting to bear fruit. He said there was evidence of fuel shortages in the country after the passage of recent UN sanctions , which targeted oil imports among other things. 
 
 However, analysts pointed out that fuel shortages did not necessarily prove that sanctions were having an effect, as most North Koreans don't own cars or use fuel at anywhere near the rate of the rest of the world. 
 
 Anthony Ruggiero, an expert in the use of targeted financial measures at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said sanctions rarely hit fast. Any lines for gas were "probably more due to the regime stockpiling fuel in anticipation that China would implement the restriction," Ruggiero, who worked at both the State Department and Treasury Department, told CNN. 
 
 Humanitarian aid 
 
 Trump is scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in Thursday, two important US allies on North Korea's doorstop. 
 
 Top of the agenda is likely to be South Korea's surprise decision to send an $8 million aid package to North Korea. The move, which runs contrary to the US and Japan's calls for an increase in economic and diplomatic pressure, marks a resumption in South Korean aid after a break of almost two years. 
 
 In statement Wednesday, the South's Unification Ministry said the decision to resume aid was in line with "the government's stance that it separates the provision of humanitarian aid from politics and it continues to provide aid to improve the humanitarian situation of North Korean residents and the quality of their lives." 
 
 The South said it planned to send $4.5 million worth of medical treatments, nursery facilities and nutritional products for children and pregnant women through the World Food Programme, and $3.5 million worth of medicinal treatments and nutritional products through UNICEF. 
 
 The precise timing and actual provision would be dependent on various factors, including "inter-Korean relations," the ministry said in a statement. 
 
 Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the North Korean situation in a phone call Monday, the White House said. Accounting for about 90% of North Korea's imports, Beijing is seen by many as the key to any North Korea strategy. 
 
 While China voted in favor of the two most recent UN resolutions against North Korea, Chinese diplomats have called for calm as Trump's rhetoric has heated up, and editorials in Chinese state media have continued to assail the US President's approach to diplomacy. 
 
 "It is time for the US to realize that irresponsible words and actions are backing the DPRK into a corner with no way out, and it would be a tragedy if Trump's risky game of chicken with the DPRK crosses the point of no return," read an editorial published Thursday in the People's Daily , the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. 
 
 "Rather than hurl threats and try to pass the buck to China, the US should accept its responsibility, and do more to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation." ||||| North Korea Minister for Foreign Affairs Ri Yong Ho speaks during the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) (Associated Press) 
 
 UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea's foreign minister told world leaders Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump's insult calling leader Kim Jong Un "rocket man" makes "our rocket's visit to the entire U.S. mainland inevitable all the more." 
 
 Ri Yong Ho called the American president "a mentally deranged person full of megalomania and complacency" with his finger on the "nuclear button." And he said Trump's "reckless and violent words" had provoked "the supreme dignity" of North Korea and "rendered this sacred U.N. arena tainted." 
 
 Ri's highly anticipated speech to the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting fueled the fiery rhetoric between the U.S. Republican president and North Korea's young leader. 
 
 Trump threatened in his speech to the 193-member world body on Tuesday to "totally destroy" North Korea if forced to defend the U.S. or its allies. Kim, in an unusual direct statement to the world, responded pledging to take "highest-level" action against the United States. 
 
 "None other than Trump himself is on a suicide mission," Ri told the assembly Saturday. "In case innocent lives of the U.S. are lost because of this suicide attack, Trump will be held totally responsible." 
 
 In a show of American military might, U.S. bombers and fighter escorts flew in international airspace on Saturday to the farthest point north of the border between North Korea and South Korea that any such American aircraft has gone in this century. 
 
 Defense Department spokesman Dana White said the mission demonstrated "U.S. resolve and a clear message that the president has many military options to defeat any threat." He said it showed how seriously Trump takes North Korea's "reckless behavior." 
 
 Ri called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — the country's official name — "a responsible nuclear weapon state." 
 
 But he warned that "we will take preventive measures by merciless pre-emptive action in case the U.S. and its vassal forces show any sign of conducting a kind of 'decapitating' operation on our headquarters or military attack against our country." 
 
 Ri said, however, that North Korea has no intention of using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against countries that don't join U.S. military actions against the DPRK. 
 
 The U.N. Security Council has imposed its toughest sanctions ever against Pyongyang, but Ri said "it is only a forlorn hope to consider any chance that the DPRK would be shaken an inch or change its stance due to the harsher sanctions by the hostile forces." 
 
 Ri suggested to reporters Friday in New York that his country could conduct an atmospheric hydrogen bomb test to fulfill Kim's vow to take action. But he made no mention of such a test Saturday. 
 
 He did say that North Korea's recent successful "ICBM-mountable H-bomb test" was part of the effort to complete the country's nuclear force. 
 
 "Our national nuclear force is, to all intents and purposes, a war deterrent for putting an end to nuclear threat of the U.S. and for preventing its military invasion," Ri said, "and our ultimate goal is to establish the balance of power with the U.S." 
 
 The foreign minister's opening remarks reflected the deep anger in North Korea at Trump's derisive nickname for Kim, who is revered by many people in the North. 
 
 During Trump's eight months in power, Ri said the American president had turned the White House "into a noisy marketing place," and now he has tried to turn the United Nations "into a gangsters' nest where money is respected and bloodshed is the order of the day." 
 
 The North Korean minister called Trump a "gambler who grew old using threats, frauds and all other schemes to acquire a patch of land" and claimed he is even derided by the American people as "Commander in Grief," ''Lyin King," and "President Evil." 
 
 "Due to his lacking of basic common knowledge and proper sentiment, he tried to insult the supreme dignity of my country by referring it to a rocket," Ri said. "By doing so, however, he committed an irreversible mistake of making our rockets' visit to the entire U.S. mainland inevitable all the more." ||||| Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Mr Trump has taken to calling Kim Jong-un "rocket man" 
 
 North Korea's top diplomat has called US President Donald Trump's speech to the UN "the sound of a barking dog". 
 
 Speaking to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Trump said he would "totally destroy" North Korea if it posed a threat to the US or its allies. 
 
 Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho's comments were North Korea's first official response to the speech. 
 
 The North has continued to develop its nuclear and weapons programmes, in defiance of a UN ban. 
 
 Mr Ri told reporters near the UN headquarters in New York: "There is a saying that goes: 'Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on'." 
 
 "If [Trump] was thinking about surprising us with the sound of a barking dog then he is clearly dreaming." 
 
 Speaking about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Mr Trump had told the UN: "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime." 
 
 When asked what he thought of Mr Trump calling Mr Kim "rocket man", Mr Ri responded: "I feel sorry for his aides." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Trump: 'Rocket Man's suicide mission' 
 
 Mr Ri is set to make a speech to the UN on Friday. 
 
 Separately, on Thursday South Korea said it would send fresh humanitarian aid to the North for the first time in nearly two years. 
 
 The unification ministry in Seoul plans to provide $8m (£6m) through UN programmes aimed at children, pregnant women and improving medical supplies. 
 
 The decision comes days after the UN approved new sanctions against Pyongyang, restricting oil imports and banning textile exports - an attempt to starve the North of fuel and income for its weapons programmes. 
 
 The UN sanctions came in response to the North's latest nuclear test on 3 September. 
 
 Experts say North Korea has made surprisingly quick progress in its development of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.
– North Korea has joined a host of other countries in condemning President Trump's speech at the UN. Trump's Tuesday speech, in which he vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if the country threatened the US or its allies, amounted to "the sound of a barking dog," Ri Yong-ho said from New York on Wednesday, per the BBC. "There is a saying that goes: 'Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on,'" said Ri, who is due to make a speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday. "If he was thinking he could scare us with the sound of a dog barking, that's really a dog dream," meaning ludicrous, he added. Asked what he thought of Trump referring to Kim Jong Un as "Rocket Man," Ri simply said, "I feel sorry for his aides." The UN General Assembly presents a rare opportunity for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to meet face-to-face with Ri, but Tillerson suggested the US couldn't have a "matter-of-fact discussion with North Korea because we don't know how their means of communication and behavior will be," reports CNN. Trump is due to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday after speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone on Monday. Though the US wants China to pressure North Korea, which gets 90% of its imports from Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated Thursday that removing the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea was key to reducing tensions, per Reuters.