SOUTH KOREA's state news agency has mentioned that Pyongyang seems to be boosting its defenses on the country's eastern coastline, after its foreign minister claimed US President Donald Trump had declared war on the North through Twitter.

Yonhap reported Tuesday that the ascetic North was in fact shoring up its defenses by moving aircraft to the coast & taking other measures, after US bombers flew close to the Korean peninsula at the weekend.

North Korea's foreign minister said Sunday that Trump had declared war on North Korea, warning in a tweet that he & the country's leader Kim Jong Un "Won't be around much longer" if the regime continued its threatening.

Trump earlier threatened he’d need to "Totally destroy" North Korea if the United States or its allies were attacked during his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017. Source: KCNA via Reuters

South Korea advocated for a de-escalation of rhetoric & nuclear disarmament on the part of its northern neighbor - which it has in principle been at war with since the 1950s.

"The North should realize that it’s no other than its nuclear & missile provocations & threatening words that cause tensions to rise on the Korean Peninsula," said a foreign ministry spokesman on Tuesday as quoted by Yonhap.