North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying his threat to "totally destroy" North Korea amounted to "the sound of a dog barking."

Ri made the comment, Pyongyang's first reaction to Trump's address at the U.N. General Assembly a day before, as he arrived in New York to attend the annual gathering of world leaders, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

"If he was thinking he could scare us with the sound of a dog barking, that's really a dog dream," Ri told reporters, Yonhap said.

He was referring to a North Korean proverb that says a procession moves even if dogs bark.

Ri is scheduled to address the assembly on Friday as the United States, Japan and South Korea, among other countries, have stepped up pressure on his country to give up its nuclear ambitions.

The foreign minister is likely to justify the North's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as aimed at self-defense against what it claims as a security threat from the United States.