Reince Priebus said the military threat posed by North Korea requires close coordination with other Asian nations, though, he said, human rights still remain a priority. | Getty Priebus: Human rights do matter to White House

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus on Sunday defended President Donald Trump's invitation of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House, arguing the threat of North Korea is the top security concern in Asia.

In an interview with "This Week," Priebus said the military threat posed by North Korea requires close coordination with other Asian nations, though, he said, human rights still remain a priority.


"It doesn't mean that human rights don't matter," Priebus told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, "but what it does mean is that the issues facing us developing out of North Korea are so serious that we need cooperation at some level with as many partners in the area as we can get to make sure we have our ducks in a row."

The administration released a readout of a phone call Saturday between Trump and Duterte in which Trump invited Duterte to visit the White House. Duterte has been criticized for his harsh crackdown on drugs in the Philippines, which human rights groups say included extrajudicial killings by death squads. On the campaign trail, Trump praised the Philippines president.

Pushed Sunday by host Jonathan Karl on where human rights stands on Trump's priorities, Priebus said the issue "stands very high at the top of the list." He pointed to Trump's retaliation against the Syrian government for a chemical weapons attack earlier this month, arguing Trump has "shown his willingness to stand up for human rights."

But Priebus called North Korea "a different level of problem."

"The issue on the table is North Korea and there is nothing right now facing this country and facing the region that is a bigger threat than what's happening in North Korea," Priebus said.

"Now if we don't have all of our folks together, whether they're good folks, bad folks, people that we wish would do better in their country, doesn’t matter," he continued. "We have got to be on the same page."