Donald Trump accused of 'hate speech' in UN address

Donald Trump was denounced by several member nations after his first major speech at the United Nations.

The US President referred to Iran as being part of "a small group of rogue regimes," and said his administration would "totally destroy" North Korea if required to do so.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif took to Twitter to vent his dissatisfaction over the US President's speech:

Trump's speech, which lasted 45 minutes, detailed his utopian vision of a world where sovereign states aimed to improve the lives of their citizens, while simultaneously taking shots at so-called "rogue nations" and how they were the "scourge of our planet."

As part of the Tuesday afternoon address, Trump recycled his new nickname for Kim Jong-un of North Korea, whose delegates had been seated in the front row but left the hall before Trump had even made it to the lectern, saying "Rocket man is on a suicide mission" when speaking of the leader's repeated acts of defiance in the face of increased UN Security Council Resolutions.

"If [the US] is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea," he said.

North Korean delegates, which had been seated in the front row left the hall before Trump had even made it to the lectern, leaving three empty seats.

According to Reuters, audience members buried their faces in their hands as loud, startled murmurs spread through the room in response.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom told the BBC that it was "the wrong speech, at the wrong time, to the wrong audience."

Trump went on to call the Iranian regime "a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy" and its "chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos," before saying the 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran and other world powers "one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu applauded Trump's speech, saying he agreed that the Iranian deal should be amended or completely scrapped as he called the UN the "epicentre of global anti-Semitism."

The President then turned his attention on Venezuela, saying the "socialist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro has inflicted terrible misery and suffering on the good people of that country," before adding that the situation was "completely unacceptable and we cannot stand by and watch."

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza clapped back at the US President, saying "Trump is not the president of the world […] he cannot even manage his own government."