Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudi Giuliani says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un got “on his hands and knees and begged” for the US President to reschedule their historic summit.

Less than a week before the two leaders are due to meet on the Singapore island of Sentosa for denuclearisation talks, the former New York mayor told a conference in Israel Mr Kim “begged” for the meeting to go ahead.

“Well, Kim Jong Un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in,” Mr Giuliani said Wednesday night (AEST).

Mr Giuliani, a member of Mr Trump’s personal legal team, told the conference that Israel should take the same hard-line approach to its Palestinian negotiations that Mr Trump took with North Korea.

Watch Mr Giuliani’s comments below:

WATCH: Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's attorney in the Russia investigation, says Kim Jong Un "got back on his hands and knees and begged for" the resumption of the US-North Korea summit, "which is exactly the position you want to put him in." pic.twitter.com/n5WpKk4aCX

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 6, 2018

The historic summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim was abruptly called off with a letter from the President last month. 

The US President put the June 12 meeting back on the schedule last week after a top North Korean official, Kim Yong-chol, personally delivered a letter to Mr Trump from Mr Kim.

Under successive members of the Kim family, around whom a nationwide cult of personality is built, North Korea has regularly shown a willingness to engage in bellicose rhetoric, especially in response to insults of its leader.

Mr Giuliani said the U.S. would not meet with North Korea under threat of nuclear war.

“They also said they were going to go to nuclear war with us, they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war,” he said.

“We said we’re not going to have a summit under those circumstances.”

The summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim will be the first time the sitting heads of government from the US and North Korea have met.

The White House has said the US President is receiving regular briefings and advice on the meeting, which he wants to use as a vehicle to persuade Mr Kim to shut down North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

-with agencies