Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho called Trump “a mentally deranged person full of megalomania” who is holding “the nuclear button.”

He said Trump’s personal insults against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, make "our rocket’s visit to the entire U.S. mainland inevitable all the more." Hours later, Kim responded by saying Trump was “deranged.”

In a speech last week at the United Nations, Trump had issued the warning of potential obliteration and mocked the North’s young autocrat as a “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission.”

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. "This is the farthest north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) any U.S. fighter or bomber aircraft have flown off North Korea's coast in the 21st century, underscoring the seriousness with which we take (North Korea's) reckless behavior," said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White.The DMZ is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th Parallel, separating North Korea from South Korea. Defense Department spokesman Dana White says in a statement that the mission shows how seriously the U.S. takes what he calls North Korea’s “reckless behavior.”

His statement says the flights are a “demonstration of U.S. resolve and a clear message” that President Donald Trump “has many military options to defeat any threat.”

White says “we are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the U.S. homeland and our allies.”

President Donald Trump has threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if the United States was forced to defend itself or its allies against a North Korean attack. We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the US homeland and our allies," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement. The ongoing war of words between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un escalated after North Korea conducted a powerful nuclear test on 3 September, suspected to be a hydrogen bomb. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on U.S.-North Korean tensions (all times local):

The Pentagon says B-1B bombers from Guam and F-15 fighter escorts from Okinawa, Japan, have flown a mission in international airspace over the waters east of North Korea.
U.S. Air Force bombers, escorted by fighter jets, fly in international airspace over waters east of North Korea. A Pentagon spokesperson say this flight's route was the farthest north of the peninsula's Demilitarized Zone of any U.S. aircraft in the 21st century.