The North Korean leader said he will make the US President "pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying" North Korea.

"I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue," Kim said in a statement released by the state Korean Central News Agency, which also published a photo of the North Korean leader sitting at his desk.

"I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire."