The PM is asked about North Korea's latest missile launch during his stand-up in Lower Hutt this afternoon.
The more sanctions the US and its allies impose on North Korea, the faster it will move to complete its nuclear plans, the reclusive nation's official KCNA news agency says.
"The increased moves of the US and its vassal forces to impose sanctions and pressure on the DPRK will onlyincrease our pace towards the ultimate completion of the state nuclear force," a statement on North Korean state media said.
It comes as US and Chinese leaders agreed to "maximise the pressure" on Kim Jong-un's regime, with the US flying four F-35B stealth fighter jets and two B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a blunt show of force, news.com.au reports.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at an undisclosed location. Photo / AP
The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a US-drafted resolution a week ago mandating tougher new sanctions against the reclusive nation that included banning textile imports and capping crude and petrol supply.
The sanctions came on top of measures issued last month that were expected to cut roughly US$1 billion from the regime's US$3b in annual export revenue.
Those restrictions represent "the most vicious, unethical and inhumane act of hostility to physically exterminate the people of the DPRK, let alone its system and government", KCNA said, citing a foreign ministry spokesman.
"[The US] is disseminating the fraudulent claim that the sanctions and pressure are geared to the so-called peaceful solution. The US is strangling and suffocating a country and breaking its will."
US President Donald Trump discussed North Korea's "continued defiance of the international community" with China's President Xi Jinping, the White House said.
The two leaders "committed to maximising pressure on North Korea through vigorous enforcement of United Nations Security Council resolutions", a statement said.
China has traditionally been North Korea's closest international ally, although the North's repeated missile tests have hardened Beijing's line on the Kim regime.
People watch a TV screen showing a local news programme reporting about North Korea's missile launch, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. Photo / AP
It is the latest barb traded between North Korea and the US as the latter warns it has exhausted diplomatic options.
Tensions flared when Kim's regime tested what it termed a hydrogen bomb many times more powerful than its previous device.
Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-In spoke by phone and vowed to exert "stronger pressure" on the North, with Moon's office warning that further provocation would put it on a "path of collapse".
AMERICA FLEXES MUSCLE
The Pentagon deployed a formation of 14 bombers and fighters over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday that also included South Korean and Japanese aircraft, the latest show of force in response to North Korea's missile launches and nuclear tests, the Washington Post reports.
The warplanes were dispatched after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over northern Japan, triggering a widespread emergency alert for those who call the region home.
Two Air Force B-1B bombers from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and four Marine Corps F-35B fighters from Iwakuni, Japan, combined with four South Korean F-15K fighters and four F-2 Japanese fighters, US defence officials said.
The aircraft carried out a simulated attack on the Pilsung training range in South Korea, about 38km from the demilitarised zone separating the North and South, while using live bombs. The US and Japanese jets also flew in formation over waters near Kyushu, Japan, a southern portion of the country that is the closest major island to the Korean Peninsula.
The show of force came as President Donald Trump prepared to deliver remarks for the first time this week at the United Nations General Assembly. The escalating standoff between the United States and its allies and North Korea prompted US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley to say that if the US exhausts its diplomatic options to stop North Korea, military force remains an option.
"If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behaviour, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed," Haley told CNN in an interview that aired Sunday. "And we all know that, and none of us want that."
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that North Korea continues to deepen its diplomatic and economic isolation with its provocative actions.
"More and more nations are realising there's simply no collaboration with the international community," he said. "There's a dismissal of international concern, unified UN Security Council concerns."
The US military released 24 photos of the latest show of force, an apparent message to North Korea and the international community.
