NORTH KOREAN MINISTER TREATS "TRUMP'S PRONOUNCEMENT AS A DECLARATION OF WAR"

North Korea is treating President Donald Trump's latest salvo in the United nations' nuclear spat as a "declaration of war," and is therefore claiming the right to shoot down American bombers in international airspace, North Korea's foreign minister said Monday.

Ri Yong Ho, speaking in New York City where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly, urged other nations in the world body to remember that the United States declared war on North Korea — the U.S. has not done so — and touted nations' right to self-defense under the U.N. charter.

"Since the U.S. declared war on our country we will have every right to make counter measures, including the right to shoot down the United States strategic bombers even when they are not yet inside the airspace border of our country," Ri said.

President Donald Trump had tweeted that North Korea "won't be around much longer" if a speech Ri made at the United Nations mirrors the sentiments of "Little Rocket Man" Kim Jong Un.

President Trump is hitting North Korea with severe new sanctions and issuing an ultimatum to the world: If you do business with Kim Jong Un the United States will not do business with you.

Trump's threat came after the American military showed its might to North Korea by sending U.S. bombers and flight escorts to a farther point north of the border between North and South Korea than any reached by American aircraft this century. The Pentagon said the mission in international airspace showed how seriously President Donald Trump takes North Korea's "reckless behavior."

"This mission is a demonstration of U.S. resolve and a clear message that the president has many military options to defeat any threat," Defense Department spokesman Dana White said in a statement.

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, has said Trump would "pay dearly" for threatening to "totally destroy" North Korea if the U.S. was forced to defend itself or its allies against a North Korean attack. Ri told reporters last week that the North's response to Trump "could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific."

The foreign minister opened his brief remarks in Korea by saying that over the last few days, the U.N. and the international community have clearly wished "that the war of words between [North Korea] and the United States will not turn into real action."