The actions of U.S. President Donald Trump's team are similar to the policies of his predecessor Barack Obama, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview, state-run RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

"Unfortunately, many actions of Donald Trump's team are inertial and, in fact, are little different from the line of Barack Obama," RIA quoted Lavrov as saying in the interview with Italian newspaper Libero.

Lavrov also rejected a U.S. call to cut ties with North Korea in response to Pyongyang's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

"We see this negatively," Lavrov told journalists in the Belarusian capital Minsk, Russian news agencies reported.

"We have repeatedly stated that the pressure of sanctions has been exhausted."

He accused the United States of seeking to provoke Kim Jong-Un's regime and demanded to know whether Washington was plotting to destroy the isolated country.

"It's as if the recent actions of the United States are consciously directed to provoke Pyongyang towards other radical actions," Russia's top diplomat said.

"The Americans need to explain what they are aiming for. If they are looking for a reason to destroy North Korea, then they should say it straight and the American leadership should confirm it," Lavrov was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday, Washington warned that North Korea's leadership will be "utterly destroyed" if war breaks out as it called on countries to cut all diplomatic and trade ties with North Korea.

The latest threat came after North Korea tested its third ICBM, which it claimed was capable of striking anywhere in the United States.