CLOSE President Trump’s comment during his United Nations speech has apparently lit the wick of war against North Korea. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland) Buzz60 
 
 This Oct. 7, 2017 photo distributed by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaking during a meeting of the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang. (Photo: AP) 
 
 North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said Wednesday that President Trump lit "the fuse of war" after the U.S. president's speech at the United Nations last month, Russian state news agency Tass reports. 
 
 "By his belligerent and insane statement at the United Nations Trump, so to say, lighted the fuse of war against us," Ri said. During Trump's speech, he threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea and denounced North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
 “We will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said. “If the righteous many don’t confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph,” he added, before repeating a nickname he gave Kim on Twitter. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself.” 
 
 Tass said North Korea’s foreign minister has described the country's nuclear weapons and ballistic program as a “sword of justice” and represent a deterrent to protect the North from the United States. 
 
 Ri said North Korea's forces have “inexhaustible power that won’t leave aggressor state America unpunished,” according to Tass. “Now it is the United States’ turn to pay, and all of our military servicemen and our entire people insistently demand that final scores be settled with the Americans only with a hail of fire, and not with words," Ri added. 
 
 
 
 The remarks come a day after the U.S. military flew two strategic bombers over the Korean Peninsula. 
 
 Two B-1B Lancers took off from Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam on Tuesday to conduct a training mission with military allies Japan and South Korea near the Sea of Japan, according to the U.S. military. 
 
 The mission was a display of alliance between the three nations and their resolve to enhance security in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The presence of the bomber crafts is part of a U.S. Pacific Command mission to ensure a quick and efficient response to various types of threats in the area, the U.S, military stated. 
 
 Trump and Kim have traded heated rhetoric for weeks as tensions remain high amid North Korea's insistence it won't back down over its nuclear weapons program. In recent months, North Korea has conducted its sixth nuclear test and fired two missiles over Japan. 
 
 Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara 
 
 More: U.S. military flies bombers over Korean Peninsula 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2ycYJMR ||||| MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has “lit the wick of war” with North Korea and his country will be made to pay with “a hail of fire”, a Russian news agency quoted North Korea’s foreign minister as saying on Wednesday. 
 
 Tensions between North Korea and the United States have risen in recent weeks over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. 
 
 North Korea has test-fired several missiles and conducted what it said was a test explosion of a hydrogen bomb as it advances toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. 
 
 Speaking to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country’s nuclear program guaranteed peace and safety in the region and would not be a matter of discussion. 
 
 “With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us,” TASS quoted Ri as saying. “We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words.” 
 
 Ri has previously called Trump “President Evil” and his comments are likely to fuel an escalating war of words between the U.S. President and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
 “We have almost reached the last point on the journey toward our final goal - to achieve a real balance of power with the United States,” he said. 
 
 “Our principal position is that we will never agree to any talks in which our nuclear weapons will be the subject of negotiations.” ||||| UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday targeting the U.S. mainland with its rockets was inevitable after “Mr. Evil President” Donald Trump called Pyongyang’s leader “rocket man”, further escalating rhetoric over the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. 
 
 North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho’s remarks to the United Nations General Assembly came hours after U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers escorted by fighters flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea in a show of force the Pentagon said showed the range of military options available to Trump. 
 
 Ri’s speech capped a week of rising tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trading insults. Trump called Kim a “madman” on Friday, a day after Kim dubbed him a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.” 
 
 On Saturday, the mudslinging continued with Ri calling Trump “a mentally deranged person full of megalomania and complacency” who is trying to turn the United Nations into a “gangsters’ nest”. Ri said Trump himself was on a “suicide mission” after the U.S. president had said Kim was on such a mission. 
 
 “‘President Evil’ is holding the seat of the U.S. 
 
 President,” Ri said, warning that Pyongyang was ready to defend itself if the United States showed any sign of conducting a “decapitating operation on our headquarters or military attack against our country”. 
 
 “Now we are finally only a few steps away from the final gate of completion of the state nuclear force,” Ri told the annual gathering of world leaders. 
 
 He said sanctions would have no effect on Pyongyang’s resolve to develop its nuclear weapons, with the ultimate goal being “balance of power with the U.S.” 
 
 Trump announced new U.S. sanctions on Thursday that he said allow targeting of companies and institutions that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea. 
 
 Earlier this month the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted its ninth round of sanctions on Pyongyang to counter its nuclear and ballistic missiles programs. 
 
 The U.S. bombers’ flight was the farthest north of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea that any U.S. fighter jet or bomber has flown in the 21st century, the Pentagon said. 
 
 “This mission is a demonstration of U.S. resolve and a clear message that the President has many military options to defeat any threat,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White. 
 
 “We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the U.S. homeland and our allies.” 
 
 North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz 
 
 North Korea has launched dozens of missiles this year, several flying over Japan, as it accelerates its program aimed at enabling it to target the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile. 
 
 Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. 
 
 Ri met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after delivering his speech. Guterres expressed concern to Ri over the escalating tensions and appealed for de-escalation, the United Nations said in a statement. 
 
 The Pentagon said the B-1B bombers came from Guam and their U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter escorts came from Okinawa, Japan. Previous shows of force with bombers have stayed south of the demilitarized zone. 
 
 The patrols came after officials and experts said a small earthquake near North Korea’s nuclear test site on Saturday was probably not man-made, easing fears Pyongyang had exploded another nuclear bomb just weeks after its last one. 
 
 China’s Earthquake Administration said the quake was not a nuclear explosion and had the characteristics of a natural tremor. 
 
 The CTBTO, or Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which monitors nuclear tests, and officials of the South Korean meteorological agency also said they believed it was a natural quake. 
 
 The earthquake, which South Korea’s Meteorological Agency put at magnitude 3.0, was detected 49 km from Kilju in North Hamgyong Province, where North Korea’s known Punggye-ri nuclear site is located, the official said. 
 
 All North Korea’s nuclear tests registered as earthquakes of magnitude 4.3 or above. The last registered as a magnitude 6.3. 
 
 Tensions have continued to rise around the Korean Peninsula since Pyongyang carried out its sixth test, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions. 
 
 Trump told the United Nations on Tuesday the United States would “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened the United States or its allies. 
 
 North Korea’s nuclear tests to date have all been underground, and experts say an atmospheric test, which would be the first since one by China in 1980, would be proof of the success of its weapons program. 
 
 The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty. 
 
 Slideshow (4 Images) 
 
 The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies. 
 
 (For graphic on Nuclear North Korea, click tmsnrt.rs/2lE5yjF) 
 
 (For graphic on a tally of nuclear tests, click tmsnrt.rs/2xWf6jA)
– A day after the US flew two bombers over the Korean peninsula in a training exercise with South Korea and Japan, North Korea's foreign minister made incendiary comments promising "a hail of fire" against the US, USA Today reports. "With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us,” Reuters quotes Ri Yong Ho as telling Russian state media. “We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words.” In the speech mentioned by Ri, President Trump vowed to "totally destroy North Korea" if necessary, the Independent reports. Ri also called the North Korean nuclear program a "sword of justice" that ensures the safety of North Korea and the rest of the region. He said the nuclear program is not up for debate or negotiation with the US. “We have almost reached the last point on the journey toward our final goal—to achieve a real balance of power with the United States,” he said. Ri said North Korea has “inexhaustible power that won’t leave aggressor state America unpunished."