SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea approved a plan on Thursday to send $8 million worth of aid to North Korea, as China warned the crisis on the Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington continued. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho walks as he exits after a courtesy call with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for the 50th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay city, metro Manila, Philippines August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco 
 
 North Korea’s foreign minister likened U.S. President Donald Trump to a “barking dog” on Thursday, after Trump warned he would “totally destroy” the North if it threatened the United States and its allies. 
 
 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the situation on the Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and could not be allowed to spin out of control. 
 
 “We call on all parties to be calmer than calm and not let the situation escalate out of control,” Wang said, according to a report from the state-run China News Service on Thursday. 
 
 Meeting separately with his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, Wang reiterated a call for South Korea to remove the U.S.-built THAAD anti-missile system, which China says is a threat to its own security. 
 
 “China hopes South Korea will make efforts to reduce tension,” a report on China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as saying. 
 
 The decision to send aid to North Korea was not popular in South Korea, hitting President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating. It also raised concerns in Japan and the United States, and followed new U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its sixth nuclear test earlier this month. 
 
 The South’s Unification Ministry said its aid policy remained unaffected by geopolitical tensions with the North. The exact timing of when the aid would be sent, as well as its size, would be confirmed later, the ministry said in a statement. 
 
 The South said it aimed to send $4.5 million worth of nutritional products for children and pregnant women through the World Food Programme and $3.5 million worth of vaccines and medicinal treatments through UNICEF. 
 
 “We have consistently said we would pursue humanitarian aid for North Korea in consideration of the poor conditions children and pregnant women are in there, apart from political issues,” said Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon. 
 
 UNICEF’s regional director for East Asia and the Pacific Karin Hulshof said in a statement before the decision the problems North Korean children face “are all too real”. 
 
 “Today, we estimate that around 200,000 children are affected by acute malnutrition, heightening their risk of death and increasing rates of stunting,” Hulshof said. 
 
 “Food and essential medicines and equipment to treat young children are in short supply,” she said. 
 
 The last time the South had sent aid to the North was in December 2015 through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) under ex-president Park Geun-hye. 
 
 DOG BARKING 
 
 South Korea’s efforts aimed at fresh aid for North Korea dragged down Moon’s approval rating. Realmeter, a South Korean polling organization, said on Thursday Moon’s approval rating stood at 65.7 percent, weakening for a fourth straight month. 
 
 Although the approval rate is still high, those surveyed said Moon had fallen out of favor due to North Korea’s continued provocations and the government’s decision to consider sending aid to North Korea, Realmeter said. 
 
 Moon will meet Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump later on Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where North Korea was expected to be the core agenda item. 
 
 In an address on Tuesday, Trump escalated his standoff with North Korea over its nuclear challenge, threatening to “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people if the North threatened the United States and its allies. 
 
 Trump also mocked its leader, Kim Jong Un, calling him a “rocket man”. 
 
 North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho called Trump’s comments “the sound of a dog barking”. 
 
 “There is a saying that goes: ‘Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on’,” Ri said in televised remarks to reporters in front of a hotel near the U.N. headquarters in New York. 
 
 “If (Trump) was thinking about surprising us with dog-barking sounds then he is clearly dreaming,” he said. 
 
 Asked by reporters what he thought of Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “rocket man”, Ri quipped: “I feel sorry for his aides.” 
 
 North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has launched numerous missiles this year, including two intercontinental ballistic missiles and two other rockets that flew over Japan. 
 
 Such provocations have sparked strong disapproval from the international community, especially from the United States and Japan. ||||| (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." ||||| 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.