Kim Jong-un threatens Trump: Will make USS Michigan an underwater ghost

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has threatened to destroy USS Michigan, an American naval submarine, if it gets any closer to the Communist nation's waters.

The Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarine is currently docked at a naval base in South Korea's Busan, where it was recently joined by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group, the Daily Mail reported.

Pyongyang has warned that if the USS Michigan "tries to budge even a little, it will be doomed to face the miserable fate of becoming a underwater ghost.

"The urgent fielding of the nuclear submarine in the waters off the Korean peninsula, timed to coincide with the deployment of the super aircraft carrier strike group, is intended to further intensify military threats toward our republic," a North Korean website claimed.

Pyongyang also warned of sinking the USS Carl Vinson if it edged any closer to the North.

"Whether it's a nuclear aircraft carrier or a nuclear submarine, they will be turned into a mass of scrap metal in front of our invincible military power centred on the self-defence nuclear deterrence," the website said.

The threats come as relations between North Korea and the US become increasingly tensed, with President Donald Trump hinting that America was willing to take military action if Kim Jong-un carried out another missile test after Friday's failed test.

Trump, on the other hand, offered some backhanded praise for North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, calling him "a pretty smart cookie" in a television interview.

The US President is famously guarded about his strategic military thinking, but suggested that his administration will be the one to de-fang Kim.

"This should've been done and taken care of by the Obama administration. Should've been taken care of by the Bush administration. Should've been taken care of by Clinton."

Trump said North Korea had "disrespected" China by attempting to launch another ballistic missile as the President counts on his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to encourage Pyongyang to give up its pursuit of missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

In a show of force against North Korea, the US has dispatched USS Carl Vinson to the waters off the Korean peninsula and was on Saturday spotted sailing north offshore Nagasaki in Japan towards North Korea.