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The President of the United States, Donald Trump has stated that it would be a very sad day for North Korea if the U.S. decided to take military action against North Korea.

Trump also said North Korea "is behaving badly and it's got to stop". He was speaking at a White House news conference after meeting the leader of Kuwait on Thursday.

"Military action would certainly be an option. Is it inevitable, nothing's inevitable. Hopefully we're not going to have to use it [military action] on North Korea. If we do use it on North Korea, it will be a very sad day for North Korea," he said.

North Korea says it needs its weapons to protect itself from US aggression. South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

"Invariable is the aggressive ambition of the US to dominate Asia and the rest of the world by swallowing up the whole Korean peninsula," said a statement on Friday on the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

A senior Trump administration official said it is unclear whether the Cold War-era deterrence model that Washington used with the Soviet Union could be applied to a rogue state such as North Korea, adding: "I don't think the president wants to take that chance."

"We are very concerned that North Korea might not be able to be deterred," the official said, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity shortly after Trump's remarks.