United States President Donald Trump makes a comment in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, Sept. 4. UPI-Yonhap

President Donald Trump used North Korea, Friday, apparently to elude a thorny question regarding Russia's possible involvement in the recent assassination attempt on a Russian opposition leader.

Trump said the U.S. would have to look at it very seriously "if that's the case" when asked what he thought of the outcome of an investigation by Germany that the Russian opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, had in fact been poisoned with the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok.

The U.S. president argued he has been tougher on Russia than anyone else but then said he got along with almost all countries, including North Korea.

"Remember, we were supposed to be going to war with North Korea," he told a White House press conference, adding the war would have been "very messy" and "very bad" and that millions of people would have been killed.

Trump has frequently and increasingly highlighted his "good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as one of his diplomatic achievements in the lead up to the Nov. 3 presidential election.