South Korea has approved a plan to send $A10 million worth of aid to North Korea as China warns the crisis on the Korean peninsula is getting more serious by the day and the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington continues.
North Korea's foreign minister likened US President Donald Trump to a "barking dog" on Thursday after Trump warned he would "totally destroy" the North if it threatened the US and its allies.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the situation on the Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and could not be allowed to spin out of control.
While meeting his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, Wang reiterated a call for South Korea to remove the US-built THAAD anti-missile system, which China says is a threat to its own security.
The decision to send aid to North Korea was not popular in South Korea, hitting President Moon Jae-in's approval rating.
It also raised concerns in Japan and the US and followed new UN sanctions against North Korea over its sixth nuclear test earlier in September.
The South's Unification Ministry said its aid policy remained unaffected by geopolitical tensions with the North.
The last time the South had sent aid to the North was in December 2015.
Moon will meet Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump later on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where North Korea was expected to be the core agenda item.
In an address on Tuesday, Trump escalated his stand-off with North Korea over its nuclear challenge, threatening to "totally destroy" the country if the North threatened the US and its allies.
Trump also mocked its leader, Kim Jong Un, calling him a "rocket man".
North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho called Trump's comments "the sound of a dog barking".
"There is a saying that goes 'Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on'," Ri said in televised remarks to reporters in New York.
"If (Trump) was thinking about surprising us with dog-barking sounds then he is clearly dreaming."
