U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to downplay North Korea's recent missile launches amid assessments that they violated international sanctions.

In a phone interview with the Fox News program "Fox & Friends," Trump said North Korea is "not testing nuclear and not testing anything."

He said the North sent some short-range missiles out which he said "everybody else does too."

Regarding alleged sanctions violations by Pyongyang, such as illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil, Trump said in the interview that "everybody tries to break sanctions" but that the sanctions are hurting North Korea badly and the U.S. "never took the sanctions off."

Trump continued to note the U.S. has a "good relationship" with the North and that he is in no rush to resume negotiations for a nuclear deal.

The comments come days after the U.S. president said he received a "beautiful" letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and the same week as the one year anniversary of the first Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.