Trump 'begged for nuclear war', says N Korea

Pyongyang : North Korea lashed out at United States President Donald Trump and labeled him "destroyer" who "begged for nuclear war" during his tour of Asia.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency in a statement said, "Trump, during his visit, laid bare his true nature as destroyer of the world peace and stability and begged for a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula."

Trump is in Vietnam as part of his 12-day tour of Asia, and North Korea's nuclear weapons programme has been a major talking point with his Japanese, South Korean and Chinese">Chinese counterparts.

According to reports, Trump had warned North Korea on Wednesday not to underestimate the United States as he wrapped up his visit to South Korea.

Earlier, at the outset of this tour, Trump, in an interview broadcast stated he would "certainly be open" to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Pyongyang described Trump's trip as "nothing but a business trip by a warmonger to enrich the monopolies of the US defense industry."

"It is also nothing but a business trip by a warmonger to enrich the monopolies of the US defense industry by milking the moneybags from its subordinate allies," the statement added.

The statement also referred to Trump as dotard, a word the isolated nation has used on him in the past as well.

The US and North Korea have long been engaged in back-and-forth barbs over the latter's threat of a nuclear attack.

Trump threatened to rain "fire and fury" on North Korea and also called Kim Jong-un as "Little Rocket Man", while North Korea denounced Trump as a "mentally deranged US dotard."

North Korea jolted major world leaders when it carried out the strongest of its six-ever nuclear tests in early September, claiming to have used a hydrogen bomb.