President Donald Trump sounded like a “barking dog” in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly this week, North Korea's foreign minister said Thursday.

“There is a saying that goes: ‘Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on,’” Ri Yong Ho told reporters near the U.N. headquarters in New York City. “If (Trump) was thinking about surprising us with dog-barking sounds then he is clearly dreaming.”

Ri joked that he felt “sorry” for Trump’s aides when asked about Trump referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “rocket man.”

Ri is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

Trump has unleashed many strong statements regarding North Korea since taking office, including his August warning that the North would face "fire and fury" if it continued down its defiant path of weapons tests and threatening rhetoric.

A top North Korean general, however, called Trump's "fire and fury" comment "a load of nonsense" let out by "a guy bereft of reason."

The latest back-and-forth came as outside experts said North Korea was getting closer to achieving its long-stated goal of building nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking any location in the U.S. mainland.

Earlier this month, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test and fired a second ballistic missile over Japan after firing the first in August. The U.N. Security Council subsequently imposed fresh, tough sanctions on North Korea, triggering a furious response from the North.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.