Washington (CNN) Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York who President Donald Trump fired just three months into his presidency, says he believes that if he had stayed Trump would have asked him "to do something inappropriate."

"I will tell you one thing, now that it's been some months. I believe based on the information that we have on the president talking to Jim Comey relating to Michael Flynn, the information about the president talking to Jeff Sessions about the case of Joe Arpaio, and how he wanted both of those cases to go away -- that had I not been fired, and had Donald Trump continued to cultivate a direct personal relationship with me, it's my strong belief that at some point, given the history, the President of the United States would have asked me to do something inappropriate," Preet said on the first episode of his new podcast "Stay Tuned with Preet."

During the podcast, Bharara gave what he called "the most detailed account" yet about the events leading up to his firing by Trump in March, which he hinges on a series of unannounced and highly unusual phone calls he received from Trump after Election Day.

Bharara added that he still doesn't know why he was fired by Trump in March. He was known as one of Wall Street's fiercest watchdogs and a widely respected prosecutor.

The interactions Bharara said he had with Trump started with a call from Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, his old boss, who called Bharara on November 8 to tell him Trump wanted to keep him around.

Bharara said that the call came as a surprise to him but was "flattered at the time." It lead to an in-person meet-and-greet on November 30 with the President-elect along with his right-hand campaign aides -- and later White House advisers -- Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, he said.

During the meeting, Bharara said nothing "inappropriate" or "untoward" came up, including discussing the details of any ongoing cases. But something peculiar did happen: Trump requested Bharara's personal cell phone and office numbers.

"It was odd, because as a general matter, Presidents don't speak directly to United States attorneys. It's unheard of in my experience," he said. "You know the number of times President (Barack) Obama called me? Zero."

The first call from Trump came less than a month later, on December 12, Bharara said.

"I wondered what it was about and I also wondered why the President-elect would not have foremost in his mind the awkwardness that was the tarmac incident where there was a private conversation between Bill Clinton and then Attorney General Loretta Lynch. And the most notable critic of that meeting was Donald Trump himself," Bharara said. "But he was not yet the President. He couldn't direct me to do anything."

Bharara chose to return Trump's call. But he said he noted at the time that it "wasn't the greatest thing in the world to have a direct and casual line of communication between a sitting United States attorney and a future President of the United States. Particularly given the kinds of jurisdiction I have in Manhattan."

Which, Bharara added, included "interests close to the President of the United States."

However, the call ended up being pretty unmemorable, Bharara said. He described Trump as "genial" and said he sounded like he wanted to "cultivate a relationship."

"I hoped that was a one time thing, and I wasn't going to hear from him again," Bharara said.

But it was not. The next call from Trump came the day before inauguration. It went to Bharara's voicemail and he once again said he had to weigh the option on whether to call the almost-President back. Because Trump was not yet in office, and still did not technically have authority over Bharara, he said he decided to return the call.

"This time again the President-elect seemed to simply be calling to shoot the breeze," Bharara said, adding that he thought it was "odd that (Trump) had time for a five-minute chit-chat to the local US attorney in Manhattan" especially considering that it was the day before he took office.

Bharara added: "To my knowledge, Donald Trump did not reach out to any other US attorney, and none has come forward to say they got a phone call -- it seemed like it was just me."

Bharara went about his job for a month and a half before he got another direct call from Trump on March 9. But this time was different. Trump was now the President. Bharara said what was especially notable about the date of the call was that at the time there had been much many cries from multiple corners to investigate aspects of Trump's business dealings and other ethics issues.

"I have reason to believe later that nobody knew that Donald Trump was calling me from the Oval Office," Bharara said. "I'm not saying he was going to tell me to do something I shouldn't do, but I thought even the phone call was a problem."

Bharara said he mulled over how to react to the call. He considered having someone listen in to the call but said it didn't seem proper. He even considered recording the phone conversation but said he ultimately decided it was "a bridge too far."

So instead, he decided to decline the call completely, and called back the President's office to let them know.

Less than 20 hours later, Bharara said, he was asked to resign.

"People ask me why do you think you were fired, and I say 'I dunno.' I'm prepared to believe lots of things are possible, It could be because someone got angry that I didn't return the phone call. It could be that people thought that all of these US attorneys were part of this nonsensical notion of the deep state. It could be a combination of reasons. It could have been an accident and they decided to stick with it. It could be that they didn't want independent people around," he said. "I'm not here to speculate. I just laid out the facts."</s>SEOUL, South Korea -- Famous for using bombastic, derogatory and often-awkward English slams against enemies, North Korean state media sent people scrambling for dictionaries Friday with a dispatch that quotes leader Kim Jong Un calling President Donald Trump "the mentally deranged U.S. dotard."

Dotard means a person in a feeble or childish state due to old age. It's a translation of a Korean word, "neukdari," which is a derogatory reference to an old person.

It was used in an unusual direct statement from Kim that the Korean Central News Agency transmitted verbatim in response to Trump's speech at the U.N. this week, in which he mocked Kim as a "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission," and said that if the U.S. is "forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."

It was the first time for a North Korean leader to issue such a direct statement against a U.S. president, dramatically escalating the war of words between the former wartime foes and raising the international nuclear standoff to a new level.

Trump responded by tweeting that Kim is "obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people."

Kim said his country will consider the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history," a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon, but didn't elaborate.

His foreign minister, asked on a visit to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly what the countermeasure would be, said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.

"I think it could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific," Ri Yong Ho said, according to South Korean TV. "We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong Un."

An H-bomb test in the Pacific, if realized, would be considered a major provocation by Washington and its allies. North Korea has conducted six nuclear test explosions since 2006, all at its northeastern underground test site.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera noted a Pacific test could mean a nuclear-armed missile flying over Japan. He said North Korea might conduct an H-bomb test with a medium-range or intercontinental ballistic missile, given its recent advances in missile and nuclear weapons development.

"We cannot deny the possibility it may fly over our country," he said.

Vipin Narang, a nuclear strategy expert at MIT, said such a test could pose a danger to shipping and aircraft, even if North Korea declares a keep-out zone.

"And if the test doesn't go according to plan, you could have population at risk, too," he said. "We are talking about putting a live nuclear warhead on a missile that has been tested only a handful of times. It is truly terrifying if something goes wrong."

North Korea was slapped with new, stiffer sanctions by the United Nations after its sixth and most power nuclear test on Sept. 3. In recent months, it has also launched a pair of still-developmental ICBMs it said were capable of striking the continental United States and two intermediate-range missiles that soared over Japanese territory.

North Korea says it needs to have a nuclear deterrent because the United States intends to invade it. Analysts say the North is likely to soon achieve its objective of possessing nuclear missiles capable of reaching any part of the U.S. homeland.

Hours before Kim's statement, Trump announced stiffer new sanctions on North Korea as he met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in New York.

Trump's executive order expanded the Treasury Department's ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea, and to ban them from interacting with the U.S. financial system.</s>President Donald Trump added economic action to his fiery military threats against North Korea on Thursday, authorizing stiffer new sanctions in response to the Koreans' nuclear weapons advances. Its leader Kim Jong Un issued a rare statement, branding Trump as "deranged" and warning he will "pay dearly" for his threat to "totally destroy" the North if it attacks.

The exchange of super-heated rhetoric and unusually personal abuse between the adversaries will escalate tensions that have been mounting as North Korea has marched closer to achieving a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike America. The crisis has dominated the Trump's debut at this week's annual U.N. General Assembly meeting.

Kim's statement, carried by North Korea's official news agency in a dispatch from Pyongyang early Friday, responded to Trump's combative speech days earlier where he not only issued the warning of potential obliteration for the isolated nation, but also mocked the North's young autocrat as a "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission."

Kim offered choice insults of his own.

He said Trump was "unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country." He described the president as "a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire." He characterized Trump's speech to the world body on Tuesday as "mentally deranged behavior."

"I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK," said the statement carried by Korean Central News Agency.

DPRK is the abbreviation of the communist country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

There was no immediate response from the White House.

On Thursday in New York, Trump announced the latest steps to punish foreign companies that deal with the North. It was the latest salvo in a U.S.-led campaign to isolate and impoverish Kim's government until it halts the missile and nuclear tests. He announced the measures as he met leaders from South Korea and Japan, the nations most immediately imperiled by North Korea's threats of a military strike.

"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," Trump said as he joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in for lunch. "Tolerance for this disgraceful practice must end now."

His executive order expanded the Treasury Department's ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea, and to ban them from interacting with the U.S. financial system.

"Foreign financial institutions must choose between doing business with the United States or facilitating trade with North Korea or its designated supporters," the order says. It also issues a 180-day ban on vessels and aircraft that have visited North Korea from visiting the United States.

Trump also said China was imposing major banking sanctions, too, but there was no immediate confirmation from the North's most important trading partner. China's central bank would not take questions by phone Friday and did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

Trump praised China for instructing its banks to cut off business with Pyongyang, but neither the Chinese nor Trump officials were ready to say so. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he had spoken at length Thursday with the head of China's central bank but "I am not going to comment on confidential discussions."

If enforced, the Chinese action Trump described could severely impede the isolated North's ability to raise money for its missile and nuclear development. China, responsible for about 90 percent of North Korea's trade, serves as the country's conduit to the international banking system.

Trump said the China action he described "was a somewhat unexpected move and we appreciate it."

China remains leery of pressuring North Korea into collapse and has resisted cutting off its critical oil supplies, not wanting chaos on its border. Along with Russia, China wants the U.S. to seek dialogue with the North. American officials say the time isn't right for any formal diplomatic process. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday that negotiations are the "only way out" of the nuclear standoff.

Several news outlets this month have reported Chinese steps to restrict banking transactions, but the government hasn't made a formal announcement. Asked for comment last week, the Foreign Ministry said China has always fully implemented U.N. sanctions on North Korea but opposes "unilateral" restrictions imposed by another country on Chinese entities. China's embassy in Washington declined to comment Thursday.

The focus on economic measures by Washington had at least temporarily shifted focus from the talk of military action that has caused unease, even among U.S. allies. In his speech to the U.N. on Tuesday, Trump spoke of his own nation's patience, but said that if "forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."

Trump's messengers backed him up in television appearances Thursday. Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News: "We do not desire a military conflict. But the president has made it very clear, as he did at the U.N. this week, that all options are on the table and we are simply not going to tolerate a rogue regime in Pyongyang obtaining usable nuclear weapons that could be mounted on a ballistic missile and threaten the people of the United States or our allies."

Trump's heated language was rare for a U.S. president at the rostrum of the United Nations. But the speech was textbook Trump, dividing the globe into friends and foes and taking unflinching aim at America's enemies.

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@mattpenn_99 and Lemire at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire</s>Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara became a household name in political circles when he famously refused to resign per Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s orders. Donald Trump subsequently fired Bharara, who later claimed he received an “unusual” series of phone calls from the then-president-elect several months before his dismissal.

Since then, Bharara has joined CNN as a senior legal analyst and has launched a new podcast, Stay Tuned with Preet, for WNYC. The first episode of the podcast dropped Thursday, and it doesn’t disappoint, for Bharara discusses additional details of his awkward encounters with Trump. “I will tell you one thing, now that it’s been some months,” the host begins from the top:

“I believe based on the information that we have on the president talking to Jim Comey relating to Michael Flynn, the information about the president talking to Jeff Sessions about the case of Joe Arpaio, and how he wanted both of those cases to go away — that had I not been fired, and had Donald Trump continued to cultivate a direct personal relationship with me, it’s my strong belief that at some point, given the history, the President of the United States would have asked me to do something inappropriate.”

While Bharara’s conclusion regarding what may have happened sans firing exists in retrospect, the very nature of his initial meetings and subsequent phone calls with Trump are discomforting. Soon after the election, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) told the attorney Trump wanted to speak with him personally. During their first encounter, the president asked Bharara for his office and cell phone numbers. “It was odd, because as a general matter, presidents don’t speak directly to United States attorneys. It’s unheard of in my experience,” he recalls. “You know the number of times President Obama called me? Zero.”</s>North Korea has often issued statements in the names of its government and its People’s Army, and since taking power in late 2011, Mr. Kim has delivered an annual New Year’s Day speech. But the comment on Friday was the first open statement ever issued toward a foreign head of state by a top North Korean leader.

By issuing a statement in his own name, Mr. Kim, whose cultlike leadership rests upon his perceived daring toward North Korea’s external enemies, has turned his standoff with the United States into a personal duel with Mr. Trump, analysts said, further raising the risks of the already volatile relationship between Washington and Pyongyang.

North Korean media carried photos of Mr. Kim sitting in his office and reading his statement. But his voice was not broadcast. On the country’s state-run Central TV, a female announcer read his statement.

”This is totally unprecedented,” said Paik Hak-soon, a longtime North Korea analyst at the Sejong Institute, a research think tank outside Seoul, referring to Mr. Kim’s statement. “The way North Korea’s supreme leadership works, Kim Jong-un has to respond more assertively as its enemy gets more confrontational, like Trump has.

”There is no backing down in the North Korean rule book,” Mr. Paik said. “It’s the very core of their leadership identity and motive.”

Until now, Mr. Kim himself has appeared to refrain from personal attacks on the American president, even as Mr. Trump has called him a “maniac,” a “madman” and a “total nut job.”

On Friday, Mr. Kim said he took Mr. Trump’s latest assault personally.

“Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history,” he said.

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said that Mr. Kim, faced with Mr. Trump’s threat of annihilation, could only respond equally forcefully.

“When Trump stood before the United Nations General Assembly and threatened to totally destroy his country, Kim Jong-un had to take that as the United States telling the world of its intention for possible military action,” Mr. Koh said. “He had to respond in kind, launching the same kind of verbal bombs.”

Analysts said that by putting his personal reputation on the line with his statement, Mr. Kim was now far more unlikely to stand down. Instead, his government would use the escalating standoff as an excuse to conduct more nuclear and missile tests, they said.

”Trump shot himself in the foot with his unabashedly undiplomatic United Nations General Assembly speech,” said Lee Sung-yoon, a Korea expert at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. “By threatening to totally destroy North Korea, he created the impression around the world that it is actually the United States — instead of North Korea — that’s motivated by aggression. In effect, Trump gave Kim Jong-un a freebie for another major provocation. Kim will oblige, and claim that it was in ‘self-defense’ against Trump’s unnerving threats.”

Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, compared the Korean standoff to the October 1962 crisis over Soviet missiles in Cuba, urging the United Nations’ secretary general, António Guterres, to convene the six parties that were previously involved in talks on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula — China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States — to discuss reducing fever-pitch tensions.

”We are in a cycle of escalation that leads to a very bad end,” Mr. Kimball said.

North Korea has conducted all of its six nuclear tests within deep underground tunnels to diminish the spread of radioactive materials, and has stepped up the pace of its missile tests. Some analysts fear that the next step might be for North Korea to try to prove that it can deliver a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile, no matter how dangerous and provocative that might be.

It has been 37 years since any nation tested a nuclear weapon in the planet’s atmosphere, reflecting the nearly universal opposition to such tests over fears of the effects of radioactive fallout on human health and the environment. The last atmospheric test took place in 1980, when China fired what experts believed to be a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile into a desert salt flat more than 1,300 miles west of Beijing.

Shin Beom-chul, a security expert at the government-run Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul, said that even if North Korea wanted to conduct an atmospheric nuclear test in the Pacific, it did not have the ability to dispatch test-monitoring ships to the open ocean while the United States military was on the prowl.

Mr. Shin said North Korea probably would not risk the radioactive fallout and other grave dangers involved in a nuclear missile test. The country has yet to master the technologies needed to prevent the warhead at the tip of its long-range ballistic missile from burning up while re-entering Earth’s atmosphere from space, South Korean officials said.

”What if the nuclear missile goes wrong mid-flight and detonates over Japan? It would mean a nuclear war,” Mr. Shin said. “More likely, North Korea will graduate its provocations, as if moving on steppingstones.”

Analysts said North Korea had been escalating tensions in stages in what they called a “salami tactic,” as in slice by slice.

Kim Dong-yub, a defense analyst at the Seoul-based Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Kyungnam University, said that North Korea would probably try to disprove skeptics in the West over its ability to strike long-range targets by firing its Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile over Japan and father into the Pacific — but without a nuclear payload.

Some analysts said North Korea’s Mr. Kim was acting more defensively than offensively, with his threats aimed at forcing the Trump administration to ease sanctions. On Thursday, Mr. Trump issued an executive order empowering his government to punish international banks and other entities that trade with North Korea.

But other analysts warned that North Korea’s determination to improve its nuclear capabilities — and act offensively — had long been underestimated.

“If we follow what North Korea has been doing, it will be almost certain that it will fire its missile sooner or later to demonstrate an ICBM range,” Mr. Kim, the Kyungnam University analyst, said. “I don’t think the missile will carry a nuclear warhead, but I can’t shake off the fear that it might, because North Korea has time and again carried things beyond my expectation.”</s>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lobbed a string of insults at President Donald Trump on Friday, calling him a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and hinting at a frightening new weapon test.

It was the first time for a North Korean leader to issue such a direct statement against a U.S. president, dramatically escalating the war of words between the former wartime foes and raising the international nuclear standoff to a new level.

Trump responded by tweeting that Kim is "obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people."

In a lengthy statement carried by state media, Kim said Trump would "pay dearly" for his recent threat to destroy North Korea. He also called Trump "deranged" and "a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire."

Kim said his country will consider the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history," a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon, but didn't elaborate.

His foreign minister, asked on a visit to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly what the countermeasure would be, said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.

"I think it could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific," Ri Yong Ho said, according to South Korean TV. "We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong Un."

Kim's statement was unusual because it was written in the first person. North Korean state TV later showed a solemn-looking Kim, dressed in a gray Mao-style suit, reading the statement. South Korea's government said it was the first direct address to the world by any North Korean leader.

Some analysts saw a clear sign that North Korea will ramp up its already brisk pace of weapons testing, which has included missiles meant to target U.S. forces throughout Asia and on the U.S. mainland.

An H-bomb test in the Pacific, if realized, would be considered a major provocation by Washington and its allies. North Korea has conducted six nuclear test explosions since 2006, all at its northeastern underground test site.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera noted a Pacific test could mean a nuclear-armed missile flying over Japan. He said North Korea might conduct an H-bomb test with a medium-range or intercontinental ballistic missile, given its recent advances in missile and nuclear weapons development.

"We cannot deny the possibility it may fly over our country," he said.

Vipin Narang, a nuclear strategy expert at MIT, said such a test could pose a danger to shipping and aircraft, even if North Korea declares a keep-out zone.

"And if the test doesn't go according to plan, you could have population at risk, too," he said. "We are talking about putting a live nuclear warhead on a missile that has been tested only a handful of times. It is truly terrifying if something goes wrong."

North Korea was slapped with new, stiffer sanctions by the United Nations after its sixth and most power nuclear test on Sept. 3. In recent months, it has also launched a pair of still-developmental ICBMs it said were capable of striking the continental United States and two intermediate-range missiles that soared over Japanese territory.

North Korea says it needs to have a nuclear deterrent because the United States intends to invade it. Analysts say the North is likely to soon achieve its objective of possessing nuclear missiles capable of reaching any part of the U.S. homeland.

Kim's statement was in response to Trump's combative speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday in which he mocked Kim as "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission" and said that if "forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."

Kim said Trump's remarks "have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last." He also said he would "tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire."

Hours before Kim's statement, Trump announced stiffer new sanctions on North Korea as he met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in New York.

"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," Trump said as he joined South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for lunch.

Trump's executive order expanded the Treasury Department's ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea, and to ban them from interacting with the U.S. financial system.

Trump also praised China for what he called an instruction to its banks to cut off business with North Korea. But a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Trump's announcement was "not consistent with the facts," though he gave no indication what steps China might be taking.

"In principle, China has always implemented the U.N. Security Council's resolutions in their entirety and fulfilled our due responsibility," Lu Kang, the Chinese spokesman, told a regular briefing.

China, North Korea's largest trading partner and last major diplomatic ally, has cut off imports of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods from North Korea in line with U.N. sanctions.

The South Korean government, which has sought a dialogue with North Korea, called Kim's statement a "reckless provocation" that would deepen the North's international isolation and lead to its demise.

Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington at the United Nations and Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.</s>Image copyright Reuters Image caption Donald Trump was speaking ahead of a meeting with South Korea's Moon Jae-in (L)

US President Donald Trump has signed a new order that boosts sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme.

The US treasury has been authorised to target firms and financial institutions conducting business with the North.

The president also said China's Central Bank had instructed other Chinese banks to stop doing business with Pyongyang.

It comes less than two weeks after the UN approved new sanctions against the country over its latest nuclear test.

Tensions have risen in recent weeks over the North's continued nuclear and ballistic missile tests, despite pressure from world powers to stop.

Announcing a new executive order on Thursday, President Trump said the measures were designed to "cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea's efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind".

He singled out the North's textiles, fishing, information technology and manufacturing industries.

"For much too long North Korea has been allowed to abuse the international financial system to facilitate funding for its nuclear weapons and missile programs," he said.

He stressed that the sanctions were targeting "only one country, and that country is North Korea".

His treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, later told reporters: "Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that going forward they can choose to do business with the United States or with North Korea, but not both."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Donald Trump hopes sanctions will impact Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme

The US president had on Tuesday vowed to "totally destroy" the North if forced to defend itself or its allies, in his first address as US president to the UN General Assembly.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to make Mr Trump "pay dearly" for his speech.

In a statement on Friday, he branded Mr Trump "mentally deranged" and said the US president's remarks "have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last".

Taking an indirect swipe at the US, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the UN that "military hysteria" over the North's nuclear testing would lead to "disaster".

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Pyongyang not to go in a "dangerous direction", and told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that there should be no new nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula "whether it is in the north or the south".

Meanwhile, South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, met Mr Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly - an annual event, bringing together leaders of the UN's 193 member states.

Earlier, Mr Moon said his country did not want the North to collapse, nor does it want an enforced reunification of the peninsula.

But he said sanctions were necessary to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table and force it to give up its nuclear weapons programme.

The latest UN sanctions - which came after the North's nuclear test on 3 September - restrict oil imports and ban textile exports, in an attempt to starve it of fuel and income for its weapons programmes.

It is the ninth round of UN sanctions to hit North Korea since 2006.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The US president is ramping up his threats against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (far right)

The US has been imposing sanctions on North Korea since 2008, freezing the assets of individuals and companies linked to its nuclear programme, as well as banning the exports of goods and services to the country.

In his comments on Thursday, President Trump praised China, one of North Korea's closest trading partners, saying: "Their central bank has told their other banks, that's a massive banking system, to immediately stop doing business with North Korea."

However, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, Lu Kang, later said that Mr Trump's comments were inaccurate. "They do not accord with the facts," he said.

It is not clear if a misunderstanding has occurred in relation to China's banks being ordered to immediately cease doing business with Pyongyang or whether China's central bank has agreed to a gradual withdrawal from the market.

None of the latest sanctions are believed to include any ban on oil imports to North Korea, which China continues to resist.

Three days after the UN's punitive measures were approved, Pyongyang fired off a second ballistic missile over Japan - its furthest-reaching yet.

European Union officials have also revealed plans to impose fresh sanctions against the country, but a decision is unlikely to be taken until the middle of October.

Experts say North Korea has made surprisingly quick progress in its development of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.</s>North Korea’s foreign minister warned Thursday that Pyongyang could test a powerful nuclear weapon over the Pacific Ocean in response to US President Donald Trump’s threats of military action.

The country’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who was due to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday but has since dropped out, told reporters in New York that the ultimate decision, however, was up to his boss, Kim Jong Un.

“This could probably mean the strongest hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean. Regarding which measures to take, I don’t really know since it is what Kim Jong Un does,” said Ri.

Ri’s comments came shortly after Kim said that Trump would “pay dearly” for threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea during his UN speech Tuesday.

In a rare direct statement, Kim said he “will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.”

“I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue,” Kim said. “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.”

Kim also said the comments were reflective of “mentally deranged behavior.”

The phrase “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” could be considered an escalation in the choice of language used, said Vipin Narang, a professor of political science at MIT and expert on deterrence and nuclear policy.

“This is clearly trying to coerce the US into playing ball,” Narang told CNN.

In his first address to the United Nations as US President, Trump said that the US was ready to “totally destroy” North Korea if it was forced to defend its allies, a warning seen as unprecedented for a US president delivering an address to the world’s leaders and top diplomats.

Responding to the speech, Kim said Trump’s comments amounted to an insult. “I’d like to advise Trump to exercise prudence in selecting words and to be considerate of whom he speaks to when making a speech in front of the world,” Kim said.

A handful of North Korea analysts believe that this is the first time Kim Jong Un has ever released a first-person statement.

“This is unprecedented, as far as we can tell,” Narang told CNN. “He was clearly offended by the speech, and what concerns me most is the response he says he is considering.”

Asked to respond to Kim’s statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told CNN on Thursday night, “Not at this time.”

North Korea was scheduled to speak at the UN General Assembly Friday night, but dropped off of its planned roster spot. The country could still get a slot at another time.

The White House, meanwhile, took the another step in its so-called “peaceful pressure” campaign to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear program, expanding sanctionson North Korea and those who do business with the country.

Though the majority of North Korea’s imports come from China, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said “This action is directed at everyone” and the steps are “in no way specifically directed at China.”

The executive order Trump inked just ahead of the lunch enhances Treasury Department authorities to target individuals who provide goods, services or technology to North Korea, Trump said. He said the order would also allow the US to identify new industries — including textiles, fishing and manufacturing — as potential targets for future actions.</s>Beijing — President Donald Trump’s announcement that Beijing told its banks to stop dealing with North Korea is “not consistent with the facts,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Friday, but he gave no indication what steps China might be taking.

The spokesman, Lu Kang, said Beijing complies with U.N. Security Council resolutions. The council has told member countries to ban most activity abroad by North Korea’s banks in response to its nuclear and missile tests.

Asked at a regular briefing about Trump’s comment, Lu said, “As far as I know, what you have mentioned just now is not consistent with the facts.”

Lu gave no explanation but added, “in principle, China has always implemented the U.N. Security Council’s resolutions in their entirety and fulfilled our due responsibility.”

China wants to stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile development but has warned against pushing the government of Kim Jong Un so hard it collapses or hurting ordinary North Koreans.

China accounts for about 90 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade. Beijing has cut off imports of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods in line with U.N. sanctions.

Trump praised China on Thursday for what he said was instructions to its banks to cut off business with North Korea. He said the action “was a somewhat unexpected move and we appreciate it.”

U.S. officials would not confirm that. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he spoke at length with the head of China’s central bank but “I am not going to comment on confidential discussions.”

The Chinese central bank would not take questions by phone and did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

Also Thursday, Trump issued an executive order expanding the Treasury Department’s ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea and to ban them from the U.S. financial system.

It imposes a 180-day ban on vessels and aircraft that have visited North Korea from visiting the United States.

Trump announced the measures as he met the leaders of South Korea and Japan, the nations most immediately imperiled by North Korea’s threats of a military strike.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>North Korea faces financial isolation as President Trump signed an executive order Thursday that presents a steep ultimatum for its trade partners. The president met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-In as he made his decision to sign the executive order publicly at the U.N. General Assembly. The executive order was designed to go after the financial institutions that support North Korean trade partners. The Treasury Department will now have the power to refuse account access to foreign banks that are helping to fund trade in North Korea.

President Trump stated, “Foreign banks will face a clear choice. Do business with the United States, or facilitate trade with the lawless regime in North Korea.”

The executive order also prohibits any ships or aircraft that travel to North Korea from visiting the United States for a period of 180 days. This is designed to discourage trade of any kind with North Korea, and to publicly penalize those who support the dangerous regime in any way. Kim Jong Un, the dictator of North Korea, has steadily escalated tensions with the United States by refusing to halt the nation’s growing nuclear program. He has overseen the production and testing of ballistic missiles as well as the development of nuclear capabilities. Kim seems oblivious to the risks that his reckless military actions and threats bring to his entire country.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In expressed relief at President Trump’s choice of diplomacy instead of dire military action. South Korea is directly in the path of destruction, should any significant military action take place. The country has taken steps to defend itself but could still suffer serious indirect effects from any violent conflict.

According to Kevin Liptak, CNN White House producer, “Trump insists that military options are on the table for dealing with North Korea, but his aides have said diplomacy is the preferred outlet for containing the nuclear crisis.”

This executive order is an attempt to cut the North Korean regime off at the knees by disabling its ability to receive any kind of aid from the rest of the world. The order also opens the door for sanctions against any industry that provides goods or services that could bolster or help the country in any way. These sanctions could encompass everything from internet technology providers to fishermen. Kim reacted to the events of the past week with his usual threats of escalating nuclear tests and misplaced indignation.

President Trump has called for a “complete de-nuclearization” of North Korea immediately. Even Chinese leader Xi Jinping, a long-time supporter of North Korea, has tentatively withdrawn his country’s financial and political support. Jinping was not present at the U.N. General Assembly, but made his position clear after speaking with President Trump.

The New York Times described Thursday’s events as “…expanding efforts to constrict North Korea’s trade with the world.”

President Trump went on to reiterate his strong opposition to the actions of North Korea and its leader, saying, “We cannot have this as a world body any longer.”
U.S. President Donald Trump announces new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.