North Korea mocks Trump's 'weird, ego-driven' tweets

The comments come after Mr Trump claimed North Korea was 'starting to respect us'

Rex Tillerson has met with the Association of Southeast Asia Nations to discuss the threat from Pyongyang (AP)

Shortly after Donald Trump claimed North Korea was “starting to respect us,” the regime shot back by criticising the President's Twitter habits.

In a post published by the state-run KCNA news agency, the North Korean government accused Mr Trump of posting "weird articles of his ego-driven thoughts in his Twitter" and "spout[ing] rubbish to make his assistants have a hard time”.

Mr Trump has tweeted numerous times about North Korea, at one point admonishing them for “behaving very badly”.

“North Korea has just launched another missile,” the President tweeted in July. “Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?”

North Korea would later go on to test yet another missile, and eventually develop the capacity to fit nuclear warheads onto intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the US.

In August, the regime threatened to cover the US territory of Guam in "enveloping fire,” leading to a tense standoff between the two countries. Pyongyang later retracted its threat on Guam, but warned that the decision could change "if the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions”.

At a campaign rally on Tuesday, Mr Trump told supporters that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is "starting to respect us”.

“I respect that fact very much. Respect that fact,” Mr Trump said. “And maybe, probably not, but maybe something positive can come about.”

While both Mr Trump and his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, seemed to signal that the conflict was dwindling this week, Pyongyang was unrepentant in its latest KCNA release.

"The US should not forget that their opponent is armed with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles," it said, warning the US to cease joint military drills with South Korea.

"This drill is too radical and dangerous to wrap this precarious action as 'yearly' and 'defensive,'" it added.

The report also critiqued South Korea's defence minister as a "running dog of the US" who is "pinning hope on that mad guy” – an allusion to Mr Trump.

The US President, it said, “spouted rubbish that if a war breaks out, it would be on the Korean peninsula, and if thousands of people die, they would be only Koreans and Americans may sleep a sound sleep”.