U.S. President Donald Trump called North Korea’s Kim Jong Un a “madman” who “will be tested like never before” as the two leaders continued to trade insults amid heighten tensions of the North’s nuclear weapons program.
Trump took to Twitter Friday to continue his war of words with North Korea, saying Kim is endangering the lives of the people in his country.
“Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!” the president tweeted.
READ MORE: North Korea says Donald Trump will ‘pay dearly’ for his threats
The president’s comment follows North Korea’s threat the U.S. will “pay dearly” for Trump’s threat to “totally destroy North Korea.”
“I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK,” Kim said in a statement through the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
Referring to Kim as “Rocket Man” during his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said the North Korean leader is on “suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said.
READ MORE: North Korea likens Donald Trump to a ‘barking dog’ in wake of UN speech
The North’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told likened Trump’s speech to the sound of a “barking dog.”
WATCH: North Korea’s foreign minister calls Trump speech ‘dog barking’
“It would be a dog’s dream if he intended to scare us with the sound of a dog barking,” the foreign minister said Wednesday.
Kim vowed to take “a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history,” in response to Trump’s threat.
“Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire,” Kim said in a statement.