News Donald Trump says 'we'll deal with it' if North Korea launches 'Christmas gift' missile The US President has responded after North Korea said it was "entirely up to the US what Christmas gift it will select to get" in a nuclear threat aimed at Washington Share Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now politics

Donald Trump has played down threats of a nuclear missile launch by North Korea - by saying the US will "deal with it".

The US President's comments come after North Korea said earlier this month that it would send a "Christmas gift" to America in a chilling nuclear threat.

"We'll find out what the surprise is and we'll deal with it very successfully," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

"We'll see what happens."

"Maybe it's a nice present," he quipped. "Maybe it's a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test." Donald Trump says the US "will deal" with threats of a nuclear missile launch by North Korea (Image: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/POOL/EPA-EFE/REX) Read More Blind mystic Baba Vanga's predictions for 2020 - after foreseeing 9/11 and Brexit

North Korea warned Washington earlier this month of a possible "Christmas gift'' after its leader Kim Jong Un gave the United States until the end of the year to propose new concessions in talks over his country's nuclear arsenal.

The secretive totalitarian state accused Washington of trying to drag out denuclearization talks ahead of the presidential election next year and said it was "entirely up to the US what Christmas gift it will select to get." A missile is launched during a long and medium-range ballistic rocket launch drill (Image: X02538) Donald Trump walks with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un during an historic summit earlier this year (Image: Getty)

US military commanders have said the North Korean response could involve the testing of a long-range missile, something North Korea has suspended, along with nuclear bomb tests, since 2017.

Trump has repeatedly held up the suspension of such tests as evidence that his talks with North Korea were productive.

Kim and Trump have met three times since June 2018.

North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change what it says is a policy of hostility amid a stalemate in efforts to make progress on their pledge to end the North's nuclear programme and establish lasting peace. Read More