President Donald Trump said on Thursday the US will impose new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons buildup, speaking just days after he threatened to "totally destroy" the country if forced to defend the US or its allies.

The president placed the threat posed by North Korea at the centre of his debut at this week's United Nations General Assembly, escalating his rhetoric against North Korea amid a monthslong crisis over Kim Jong-un's expanded missile testing programme. National security adviser HR McMaster said the new measures would stop "short of war."

Trump was asked during a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations about new punishments for the rogue nation and said new sanctions were coming.

Vice-President Mike Pence told Fox News Channel: "We do not desire a military conflict. But the president has made it very clear, as he did at the United Nations this week, that all options are on the table.

We are simply not going to tolerate a rogue regime in Pyongyang obtaining usable nuclear weapons that could be mounted on a ballistic missile and threaten the people of the United States or our allies."

The United States president, in his Tuesday address to the United Nations, said it was "far past time" for the world to confront Kim, declaring that the North Korean leader's pursuit of nuclear weapons poses a threat to "the entire world with an unthinkable loss of human life."

Source: Khaleej Times