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Donald Trump has been accused of ignoring warnings not to insult North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in his fiery UN address which stoked tensions even further.

The US president's senior aides repeatedly told him to avoid a personal attack because it could backfire and derail efforts to halt the nuclear crisis, according to reports.

It was claimed that Trump's threat to "totally destroy" North Korea and his depiction of Kim as "Rocket Man" weren't in a draft script approved by senior US officials.

In his unprecedented speech to the UN General Assembly, Trump threatened to obliterate North Korea and mocked Kim, calling him a "Rocket Man" on a suicide mission.

(Image: AFP) (Image: Barcroft Media)

Kim has said Trump would "pay dearly" for the threat, while his foreign minister told the UN that the president's insult makes "our rocket's visit to the entire US mainland inevitable all the more".

Trump's insults and threats were not in a draft speech that several senior officials reviewed and vetted the day before Tuesday's address, the Los Angeles Times reported, quoting two unidentified US officials.

The report claimed US national security adviser H.R. McMaster was among those who had argued against personally attacking or provoking Kim as North Korea develops its nuclear weapons programme and works towards building a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

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(Image: AFP)

The dictator responded by calling Trump a “a mentally deranged US dotard” and a "gangster".

Trump taunted Kim again on Saturday after North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho addressed the US General Assembly, saying that the "evil president" himself was on a "suicide mission".

Ri told the assembly of world leaders that North Korea was "only a few steps away" from becoming a "nuclear force".

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In an apparent reference to Kim, the president tweeted: "Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!"

North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb test on September 3, and has suggested that it might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.

In recent weeks it has test-fired two missiles over northern Japan, with both crashing into the sea.