North Korea has likened Donald Trump's policy posture to that of German dictator Adolf Hitler, saying the U.S. president promotes an "American version of Nazism."

The country's state-controlled news agency reportedly described Trump's "America First" policy as "Nazism in the 21st century," saying it far surpasses "the fascism in the last century in its ferocious, brutal and chauvinistic nature." The North's Korean Central News Agency went on to brand "anti-immigration politics" in the United States as "little short of fascism's racist politics."

Tensions have escalated between the U.S. and North Korea in the wake of American student Otto Warmbier's death following his monthslong detention and return to the U.S. in a coma. North Korea called the release "humanitarian," and later said it was the "biggest victim" in Warmbier's death.

U.S. officials also have continually condemned Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, and have targeted the country with sanctions.

The totalitarian country's remarks targeting American leaders, though, are not a first.

In 2004, North Korean leaders reportedly called former U.S. President George W. Bush a "political imbecile" and a "tyrant that puts Hitler in the shade" in response to comments from Bush that described then-leader Kim Jong Il as a "tyrant."