North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves during a military parade in Pyongyang. Picture: AP

It comes as the administration faces human rights criticism for its overture to Manila.

Trump issued the invitation on Saturday night in what the White House said was a “very friendly” phone conversation with Duterte, nicknamed ‘The Punisher’, who is accused by international human rights groups of supporting a campaign of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines.

“There is nothing right now facing this country and facing the region that is a bigger threat than what’s happening in North Korea,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told ABC’s This Week during a weekend in which Trump sought to firm up support in Southeast Asia to help rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

US President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesSource:AFP

Priebus insisted the outreach to Duterte “doesn’t mean that human rights don’t matter, but what it does mean is that the issues facing us developing out of North Korea are so serious that we need cooperation at some level with as many partners in the area as we can get to make sure we have our ducks in a row.”

Earlier, Trump offered some backhanded praise for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, calling him “a pretty smart cookie” in a television interview that aired on Sunday.

Mr Trump’s almost admiring remarks came amid soaring tensions with North Korea over its missile and nuclear programs, with an alarmed Washington looking to China for help in reining in Kim.

Mr Trump spoke admiringly about Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. Picture: Bullit Marquez/APSource:AP

In Sunday’s interview with CBS’s Face the Nation Mr Trump said he had “no idea” whether Kim was sane or not, but said the North Korean leader had faced a formidable challenge in taking over the country at a reported age of 27 after his father’s death in 2011.

“He’s dealing with obviously very tough people, in particular the generals and others. And at a very young age, he was able to assume power,” Mr Trump said. “A lot of people, I’m sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else. And he was able to do it.

“So obviously, he’s a pretty smart cookie,” he said.

“But we have a situation that we just cannot let — we cannot let what’s been going on for a long period of years continue,” Mr Trump added.

The White House said Trump “enjoyed the conversation” with Duterte, and looked forward to attending the key US-ASEAN and East Asia summits in the Philippines in November.

North Korean ballistic missile tests are banned by the United Nations because they are seen as part of the North’s push for a nuclear-tipped weapon that can hit the US mainland.

North Korea test-fired another missile on Saturday, the latest in a drumbeat that has aroused US fears that the regime may be close to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead.

Japan will dispatch its biggest warship since World War II to protect a US supply ship. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

South Korea said the latest test was a failure. In the CBS interview, the president was asked about why the North’s rockets keep blowing up.

“I’d rather not discuss it,” he said. “But perhaps they’re just not very good missiles. But eventually, he’ll have good missiles.”

Mr Trump refused comment on whether the US had anything to do with the test failure.

“It is a chess game. I just don’t want people to know what my thinking is. So eventually, he will have a better delivery system. And if that happens, we can’t allow it to happen.”

TRUMP: CHINA MAY BE BEHIND ELECTION HACK

Mr Trump also used the interview to claim China may have been behind the email hack of Democratic officials in the 2016 presidential election, countering the view of US intelligence officials who have said Moscow orchestrated the hacks.

The hackers roiled the presidential campaign by making public embarrassing emails sent by Democratic operatives and aides to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump gave no evidence backing his allegation, first made on the eve of the November 8 presidential election that China could have hacked the emails of his rivals.

“If you don’t catch a hacker, okay, in the act, it’s very hard to say who did the hacking,” the president said. “(It) could have been China, could have been a lot of different groups.”

US national security adviser General H.R. McMaster said North Korea’s most recent missile test represented “open defiance of the international community.” Picture: Susan Walsh/APSource:AP

MCMASTER SAYS NORTH KOREA A THREAT TO CHINA

Hours before the North Korean test, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned of “catastrophic consequences” if the international community does not act more forcefully to sanction Pyongyang.

The United States has deployed a naval strike group to the area led by the carrier USS Carl Vinson, which on Saturday began drilling with the South Korean navy.

On Saturday Japan sent its biggest warship since World War 2 to protect a US supply ship in the region.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s national security adviser, General H.R. McMaster, said North Korea’s most recent missile test represents “open defiance of the international community.”

He said North Korea posed “a grave threat” not just to the United States and its Asian allies, but also to China.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, General McMaster said it’s important “for all of us to confront this regime, this regime that is pursuing the weaponization of a missile with a nuclear weapon. This is something that we know we cannot tolerate.”

POPE WARNS OF DESTRUCTION

Meanwhile, Pope Francis called on Sunday for diplomatic solution to the crisis in the Korean peninsula, warning that “a good part of humanity” will be destroyed if tensions with North Korea escalate.

Pope Francis has called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in the Korean peninsula. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

The pope was asked on Saturday by reporters what he would tell Mr Trump and other leaders to try to diffuse the tensions.

Pope Francis said he would urge them to use diplomacy and negotiation “because it’s the future of humanity.”

“Today, a wider war will destroy not a small part of humanity, but a good part of humanity and culture. Everything. Everything, no? It would be terrible. I don’t think humanity today could bear it,” he said.

US TO PAY FOR MISSILE SYSTEM

South Korea says the US has reaffirmed it will shoulder the cost of deploying the THAAD anti-missile system, days after President Donald Trump said Seoul should pay for the $US1 billion battery designed to defend against North Korea. In a telephone call on Sunday, Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, reassured his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, that the US alliance with South Korea was its top priority in the Asia-Pacific region, the South’s presidential office said.

The conversation followed another North Korean missile test-launch on Saturday which Washington and Seoul said was unsuccessful, but which drew widespread international condemnation.

US Forces fulfilling the South Korea-US alliance decision to install a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, on the Korean Peninsula. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

Trump, asked about his message to North Korea after the latest missile test, told reporters: “You’ll soon find out,” but did not elaborate on what the US response would be.

Trump stepped up overtures to allies in Asia over the weekend to discuss the North Korean nuclear threat and make sure all are “on the same page” if action is needed, a top White House official said.

The president spoke on Sunday to Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who heads a military government that took power in a 2014 coup, and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and invited both of them to Washington. He talked on Saturday night with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who was also invited for talks.

The White House defended the Duterte call, saying his cooperation was needed to counter North Korea, even as the administration faced criticism for its overture to Manila. Duterte has been accused by human rights groups of supporting an anti-drug campaign of extrajudicial killings, which his government denies. “There is nothing right now facing this country and facing the region that is a bigger threat than what is happening in North Korea,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told ABC’s “This Week.” Trump’s comments in an interview with Reuters on Thursday that he wanted Seoul to pay for the THAAD deployment perplexed South Koreans and raised questions about his commitment to the two countries’ alliance.