Trump mocks Kim as “sick puppy”

The United States President Donald Trump derided Kim Jong-Un as a “sick puppy” and threatened major new sanctions as Pyongyang on Wednesday tested its third intercontinental ballistic missile.

The United States called on the international community to cut all diplomatic and trade ties with North Korea -- including Chinese oil shipments to Pyongyang after a groundbreaking missile test by the pariah regime.

Washington urged tough action as emergency talks on the North's latest provocation opened in the UN Security Council -- and after US President Donald Trump derided Kim Jong-Un as a "sick puppy" and threatened "major" new sanctions.

Pyongyang tested its third intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) -- which it claimed was capable of striking anywhere in the United States -- snapping a two-month pause in missile launches.

North Korean leader Kim said the test of the Hwasong-15 weapons system had helped his country achieve the goal of becoming a full nuclear power, as the international community expressed outrage.

"We call on all nations to cut off all ties with North Korea," Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told her fellow envoys.

Haley said Trump had called Chinese President Xi Jinping and urged him to "cut off the oil from North Korea.

"That would be a pivotal step in the world's effort to stop this international pariah," she said, issuing a stern warning to Kim.

"If war comes, make no mistake: The North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed," she said.

The situation will be handled

The UN Security Council was meeting at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea to consider next steps after three rounds of sanctions adopted in the past year failed to push North Korea to change course.

France's UN Ambassador Francois Delattre said the council should respond with a "tightening of the sanctions" -- a move that would likely entail the adoption of a new sanctions resolution.

Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho said "the international community has to keep the pressure up."

AFP/GY