South Korea appoints foreign affairs official to monitor Donald Trump's Twitter account

Country will closely screen posts after President-elect directed series of inflammatory tweets at China and North Korea

President-elect Donald Trump has become renowned for his outspoken and often innaccurate tweets (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)

South Korea has appointed an official from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs to monitor President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

The country’s North American Affairs Bureau will now be closely screening the Republican leader’s posts, with special attention given to tweets relating to Korea and northeast Asia, according to the JoongAng Daily.

It comes after the real-estate mogul directed a series of inflammatory tweets at China and North Korea, in a break from historic foreign policy protocol.

On Monday, Mr Trump posted on Twitter: “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!”

Later that day, he took aim at China, writing: “China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!”

In response, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: "China's efforts are widely recognised, and we hope all sides will avoid remarks and actions to escalate the situation.”

As of Thursday, the North Korea post had been retweeted over 25,000 times and received over 90,000 likes.

The posts drew scepticism from the international community, with some security analysts criticising his approach to North Korea’s nuclear advancement as ineffective.

However, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised Mr Trump’s stance and said it issued a “clear warning” to North Korea.

“President-elect Trump’s Twitter message is his first time explicitly mentioning the North Korea nuclear issue since he was elected, which makes it significant and can be interpreted as a clear warning about Kim Jong-un’s New Year address on ICBM and the possibility of provocations,” said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck.

Chinese state media lashed out at the US following the tweets, calling the country “just a shooting star in the ample sky of history”, warning Mr Trump “not to boss China around” on economic and security issues.

The Global Times newspaper, backed by the ruling Communist Party, took the strong line on Wednesday, shortly after the President-elect announced the appointment of a second outspoken critic of China to his trade team.

Robert Lighthizer, who has condemned the east Asian country for failing to abide by international trade agreements in the past, will be America’s next chief trade negotiator.