North Korea says Trump has 'lit the wick of war' and that it is ready to 'settle the final score with a hail of fire'

North Korea's foreign minister has accused President Donald Trump of having "lit the wick of a war" between his country and the US, saying that America would be made to pay with a "hail of fire".

Tensions between the US and North Korea have intensified in recent months as the Trump administration has struggled to rein in Kim Jong-un's expanding nuclear and ballistic weapons programme alongside international allies. The words of Ri Yong Ho are the latest episode of increasingly hostile barbs being traded between Mr Trump and the regime in Pyongyang.

Russia's TASS news agency quoted Mr Ri as saying: "With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us."

"We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words," he reportedly added.

During an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Mr Trump declared that the US would "totally destroy North Korea" if forced to defend itself or its allies. The President added that while the US has "great strength and patience," its options for dealing with the isolated nation could soon run out.

Trump: US's military solution for North Korea would be 'devastating'

Mr Trump also mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, referring to him as "Rocket Man".

The speech came about a week after the UN Security Council had voted to ratchet up sanctions on North Korea following its sixth and largest nuclear test, with numerous other rocket tests having been conducted this year.

A spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said last month that the more sanctions the US and its allies impose, the faster the nation will work to develop its nuclear weapons programme, according to North Korea’s official KCNA news agency.

Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far...

17 show all Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far...

1/17 Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Donald Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” REUTERS/Carlos Barria

2/17 Asked for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Mr Trump’s celebrity status years ago. AFP/Getty Images

3/17 Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Donald Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

4/17 The 'muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security. Bryan R Smith/Getty

5/17 Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Donald Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the President picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there. AP

6/17 Called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea.

7/17 Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Donald Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticizing Mr Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Mr Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Mr Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control. Getty Images

8/17 Claimed presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Donald Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no.

9/17 Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

10/17 Retweeted cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet.

11/17 Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Donald Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Mr Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of “fake news”.

12/17 Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop. Getty Images

13/17 Not realizing being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire. REUTERS

14/17 Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so. Reuters

15/17 Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Donald Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Ms Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.)

16/17 Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement. Getty Images

17/17 Anger over Inauguration crowd size Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Mr Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t. The day was very dreary. Reuters

Mr Ri has previously called Mr Trump “President Evil” and his latest comments are unlikely to be received well by the White House.

“We have almost reached the last point on the journey towards our final goal - to achieve a real balance of power with the United States,” Mr Ri said.

“Our principal position is that we will never agree to any talks in which our nuclear weapons will be the subject of negotiations,” he added.

Many members of Congress have criticised Mr Trump's "belligerent" rhetoric toward North Korea. On Sunday, Republican Senator Bob Corker even suggested that Mr Trump's comments about other nations could put the US "on the path to World War III."

Asked on Tuesday if the Senator was correct in his assessment, Mr Trump responded: "We were on the wrong path before."

"All you have to do is take a look," Mr Trump added. "If you look over the last 25 years, through numerous administrations, we were on a path to a very big problem – a problem like this world has never seen. We’re on the right path right now, believe me."

While Mr Trump has taken an aggressive tone in his comments about North Korea, other officials have been more measured.

Defence Secretary James Mattis has said the administration is still aiming for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, but has told the US Army "to be ready" should military action be ordered by the President.