Trump defends Kim Jong Un after recent missile tests, and says he has a right to feel threatened by US military drills in South Korea

Donald Trump said North Korea's Kim Jong Un feels 'threatened' by military exercises.

South Korea and the US will hold joint exercises in response to North Korean nuclear threats.

Trump has long praised North Korea's brutal dictator.

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Former President Donald Trump has defended Kim Jong Un after a series of recent missile launches, saying the North Korean dictator felt "threatened" by planned military exercises by the US and its South Korean allies.

In a post on his Truth Social page, Trump claimed that during his term in the White House he had formed a close relationship with Kim.

"Kim Jung [sic] Un of North Korea, who I got to know and got along with very well during my years as President, is not happy with the U.S. and South Korea doing big training and air exercises together," Trump wrote. "He feels threatened." He went on to complain that South Korea "pays us very little to do these extremely expensive and provocative drills. It's really ridiculous."

A man watches a TV screen showing North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul. KIM Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

In recent weeks tensions have escalated between North Korea and South Korea, a key regional ally of the US, amid a series of provocations by Kim.

On Saturday North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that landed in the Sea of Japan. The tests were a warning to South Korea and the US over extensive military exercises planned over the next few weeks, North Korea said.

In response, South Korea, Japan and the US staged joint air drills featuring a strategic bomber and stealth fighters.

North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons programs are banned by the UN, but the reclusive state has continued to develop them and menace its neighbours with them. Earlier in February, Kim attended a military parade in Pyongyang where multiple ICBMs were showcased. It's the highest number of the weapons North Korea has displayed and analysts believe the missiles have the capacity to hit the US, and could be used in a nuclear strike.

Trump during his term in office frequently boasted of the close relationship he'd formed with Kim, and of the "love letters" they'd exchanged.

He set up a series of high profile summits with the dictator which resulted in little concrete diplomatic progress in attempts to curtail North Korea's nuclear program, while lambasting South Korea for allegedly freeloading from the US.

In recent years, negotiations between North Korea and the US have stalled. Trump has launched a bid for the presidency in 2024.