"If you look at North Korea, this guy - I mean, he's like a maniac, ok, and you gotta give him credit," Mr Trump said. "How many young guys - he was like 26 or 25 when his father died - take over these tough generals? You know, it's pretty amazing when you think about it. How does he do that?" Donald Trump said "We're gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries." Credit:AP The 69-year-old, who has for many months led the densely-populated field of rivals for the GOP nod, said Mr Kim's rise to power had been "incredible" and that he should not be taken lightly. "He goes in, he takes over and he's the boss. It's incredible. He wiped out the uncle, he wiped out this one, that one - I mean, this guy doesn't play games. and we can't play games with him. Because he really does have missiles and he really does have nukes." The speech came days after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) claimed to have detonated a hydrogen bomb at an underground test site in the country's far north-east. The explosion was first detected as a magnitude 5.1 earthquake by the US Geological Survey.

This most recent nuclear test has set off a wave of commentary about how the rogue state should be contained. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop joined the chorus of international condemnation, saying Pyongyang's actions "fly in the face of international non-proliferation norms", and threaten the security of Australia's regional friends. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves at a parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. Credit:AP/File As is customary in times of crisis, many pairs of eyes have looked to the US, which has 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea to assist the country with its defence. But Mr Trump has made the argument that Mr Kim should be dealt with by China rather than the US. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN, he said sanctions should be imposed on China if it failed to act decisively against its long-term ally. Mr Trump also lashed out at China, accusing the country of perpetrating "one of the great thefts in the history of the world" on the US. Credit:Jae C. Hong

"They have total control. Without China, they [North Koreans] wouldn't be able to eat," Mr Trump said. "So China has to get involved and China has to solve that problem, and we should put pressure on China to solve the problem. He said China could handle the DPRK "easily" but the US had failed to exert enough power over its chief economic rival. "They're taunting us, they're playing games with us. I do it all the time, that's the way I deal in business," Mr Trump said. "China should solve that problem and if they don't solve that problem we should be very tough on them with trade, meaning start charging them tax, or start cutting them off. You'd have China collapse in about two minutes. We have great power over China, we just don't know how to use it." And at the Iowa rally on Saturday, the prospective Republican nominee lashed out at Beijing for perpetrating what he described as a massive heist of American money and jobs.

"They have taken so much of our money with trade. They have taken everything. They have taken our jobs, our money, they've taken our base, they've taken so much," Mr Trump said. "Literally, it's one of the great thefts in the history of the world, what they've done to our country."