"As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It's a mess at home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country. You see what's going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places," Trump said.

"Low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas no matter where you look. The Middle East? A disaster. North Korea, we will take care of it, folks. We're going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know I inherited a mess," he said.

Complaining about information leaks, Trump said, "All this information gets put into the Washington Post, put into the New York Times. What's going to happen when I'm dealing on the Middle East? What's going to happen when I'm dealing with really really important subjects like North Korea? We've got to stop it."

Refusing to answer how he's going to deal with Russia's recent provocative actions, Trump again mentioned North Korea as he argued that publicly revealing strategies to deal with such problems is not a good idea.

"I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do in North Korea. And I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do with Iran. You know why? Because they shouldn't know," he said.

These were the latest in a series remarks Trump has made about North Korea in recent days, especially after Pyongyang test-fired a newly developed intermediate range ballistic missile in its first provocative act since Trump came into office last month.

That appears to show that North Korea weighs on his mind.

On Monday, Trump called the North "a big, big problem" and said he will deal with it "very strongly."

After summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, Trump said that defending against the North's nuclear and missile threat is "a very very high priority" for him.

Trump also held a late night joint press conference with Abe on Saturday, just hours after the North's missile launch, to reaffirm the US commitment to defending the ally in the face of North Korean threats, though he stopped short of directly condemning the launch. (Yonhap)