North Korea has responded to US President Donald Trump's taunting tweets with a threat to launch nuclear weapons at New York City.

The far-fetched boast came in a Monday statement in Rodong Sinmun, a state-run newspaper viewed as a mouthpiece for the official viewpoint of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's regime.

'The DPRK is about 10,400km [6,462m] far away from New York. But this is just not a long distance for its strike today,' the statement said, referring to the initials for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (center) is seen last month during a ballistic missile test. The isolated regime has issued a new statement threatening to nuke New York City

The statement pointed to recent missile tests, such as this ballistic missile test seen in a photo released on May 30, as proof that 'its ICBM test is not a long way off at all'

The not-so-veiled threat to nuke New York appears to be a response to a months-old series of taunting tweets from Trump

'Trump blustered early this year that the DPRK's final access to a nuclear weapon that can reach the US mainland will never happen,' continues the bombastic statement written in English.

How far would missile have to travel from Pyongyang to reach the rest of the world? US Naval Base in Guam: 2,114 miles (3,402 km) Hawaii: 4,727 miles (7,670 km) London (over mainland Europe): 5,379 miles (8,657 km) San Francisco: 5,588 miles (8,993 km) Los Angeles: 5,935 miles (9,551 km) New York: 6,783 miles (10,916 km) Washington, DC: 6,857 miles (11,035 km) Advertisement

'But the strategic weapons tests conducted by the DPRK clearly proved that the time of its ICBM test is not a long way off at all.'

The not-so-veiled threat to nuke New York appears to be a response to a months-old series of taunting tweets from Trump.

'North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!,' Trump wrote on January 2.

Trump's most recent tweet on North Korea came on May 29: 'North Korea has shown great disrespect for their neighbor, China, by shooting off yet another ballistic missile...but China is trying hard!'

Experts believe North Korea's claim to be able to reach New York with its current missile technology is improbable.

But that may not be the case for much longer. The isolated regime has made recent strides in missile technology.

Last month, the regime fired a Hwasong-12 at a maximum angle that suggested the rocket might be able to travel at least 2,500 miles (4,000km) - almost half the 5,500 miles (8,851 km) required to reach the US mainland.

'While the success of the Hwasong-12 may advance the North Korean ICBM program by perhaps a year, deployment of an operational ICBM prior to 2020 is still unlikely,' analyst John Shilling wrote recently for the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.