The US president has again mocked Kim Jong Un, tweeting: "I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my button works!"
ADVERTISEMENTNorth Korea's threat to carry out another missile test along with Kim Jong Un's statement that he has a nuclear button on his desk has prompted a direct response from the US president.
In a tweet Donald Trump said that he too has a nuclear button, but that his is "much bigger and more powerful", adding that his button "works".
Trump was tweeting in response to Kim's declaration earlier this week that he has a button for nuclear weapons on his table and the entire US mainland is now within strike range.
Developments were more positive at regional level with China welcoming Seoul's offer to Pyonyang to talk about the possibility of the North participating in the Olympic Games due to take place in South Korea later this year.
Geng Shuang, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, welcomed the development:
"China welcomes and supports North and South Korea to make concrete efforts to improve relations, push forward the relaxing of the situation and realise the denuclearisation of the peninsula."
Early on Wednesday morning it was being reported that North Korea plans to open a hotline to the South to establish formal dialogue about the Olympics.
But the US made it clear that the development will have little effect on it's policy towards North Korea.
"North Korea can talk with anyone they want," US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced. But the US is not going to recognise it or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have." If there are talks, they would be the first formal dialogue between the Koreas since December 2015.