North Korea on Thursday said US President Donald Trump was "bereft of reason" and would only respond to force, state media reported, in an escalation in Washington's war of words with Pyongyang over the regime's nuclear drive.

Trump this week stunned the world with a bold-faced message to Kim Jong-Un, saying his country faced "fire and fury like the world has never seen". Pyongyang later said it was considering a missile strike near the US Pacific territory of Guam. 

"Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him," the official KCNA news service quoted General Kim Rak Gyom of the Korean People's Army as saying on Thursday morning.