The US President Donald Trump has boasted to Kim Jong Un that he has a nuclear button which is "much bigger" than that of the North Korean leader.
In a tweet on Wednesday, he responded to a speech made by the North Korea leader in which he said "a nuclear button is always on my desk".
Mr Trump wrote: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'nuclear button is on his desk at all times'.
"Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!".
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948355557022420992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The president's tweet - his 17th of the year so far - came after the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned Pyongyang against staging any further missile tests.
She told reporters on Tuesday that the US was hearing reports that the rogue state might be preparing another launch.
"I hope that doesn't happen. But if it does, we must bring even tougher measures to bear against the North Korean regime," she said.
Ms Haley added that Washington would not take any talks between North and South Korea seriously if Mr Kim did not give up his nuclear weapons.
Mr Kim said during his new year's day speech that he was "open to dialogue" with Seoul and was considering the possibility of sending athletes to next month's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, with South Korea offering to hold talks next week.
But despite the olive branch, Mr Kim said his country would push ahead with "mass producing" nuclear warheads in defiance of UN sanctions.
Threats to Palestine
The latest threat towards North Korea from Mr Trump's Twitter account followed other threatening tweets directed towards Palestine.
"It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others," he wrote.
"As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don't even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel.
"We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948322497602220032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Mr Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel sparked outrage among Palestinians, who said the move showed Washington could not claim to be a neutral broker in any peace talks.
It was also condemned at the UN, where Ireland voted to support criticising the US move.
