President Donald Trump called North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, a ‘strong head’ and said his predecessor, Barack Obama had been ‘essentially ready to go to war’ with the country.

In a Friday morning interview on the White House lawn with Fox News Channel's  "Fox & Friends" programme, Donald Trump risked provoking critics when he said the North Korean leader  was “the strong head” of his country.

Referring to Kim Jong-un , Trump said:  “He speaks and his people sit up at attention.  I want my people to do the same.”

The president also claimed his predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama, had been “essentially ready to go to war with North Korea”, and claimed to have “solved” the problem of the nuclear threat from Pyongyang.