North Korea accuses US of declaring war

North Korea has accused the United States of declaring war against the country after Donald Trump’s comments directed towards Kim Jong-un in recent days.

The country’s foreign minister Ri Yong-ho made the accusation on Monday in New York, and said Pyongyang now reserved the right to shoot down US bombers outside of its own airspace.

Wall Street stocks dropped significantly following Ri’s comments, with tech stocks seen particularly affected. The Nasdaq was down 1.19%, while the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 also saw selling in the immediate aftermath.

Tensions between the US and North Korea have escalated in recent months as both sides engage in a war of words, as Trump used his maiden address at the UN General Assembly to refer to Kim as "rocket man" and hit out at the regime’s actions.

Over the weekend Trump tweeted that Kim and Ri "won't be around much longer" if they continued their rhetoric.

“US stocks underwent a sharp wave of selling as North Korea decided to respond to the weekend’s events by declaring that it viewed Mr Trump’s comments as a ‘declaration of war’. This looks like a fairly hefty step up in the escalation game, and one that is sure to provoke a US response of some kind,” said analyst Chris Beauchamp at IG.