Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the situation in North Korea and Syria with US President Donald Trump in a telephone call on Wednesday, China's foreign ministry said.
Ahead of his summit with Xi, Trump signed off on a new policy approach to North Korea that involved increased economic and political pressure, with military options remaining under consideration in the longer term, a senior USA official told the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.
"If China decides to help, that would be great", Trump wrote Tuesday. "If not, we will solve the problem without them!"
Asked by reporters what Trump meant by the phrase "solve the problem" regarding North Korea, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer did not comment directly, but also did not rule out military options as a way of reining in the North's aggressive pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike as far as the United States.
President Xi Jinping urged a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis in a phone call he made to his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Wednesday, according to a report by China's state media.
The US has dispatched a strike group, including an aircraft carrier, to the Korean Peninsula amid rising tensions with North Korea.
North Korean state media is warning of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of American aggression as a US Navy strike group steams toward the western Pacific.
Russia has said it is anxious about the possibility of a US attack on North Korea and it would raise the issue with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian media quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.
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"We will hold the USA wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions", concludes the statement released Tuesday.
China is the closest ally to North Korea and maintains major economic leverage over the country, with most of North Korea's economic activity flowing across its shared northern border with China.
Trump also described how he pushed China to intervene during his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
North Korea's rapidly developing missile and military nuclear programs have unnerved Washington. The diversion came days after North Korea test launched its seventh missile this year.
Trump's decision to bomb a Syrian airbase last week in response to the war-torn country's chemical weapon attack on a rebel-held area also may have strengthened the perception that Trump could consider a military solution to the North Korea issue.
He added that Trump "will not tolerate" provocations by North Korea.
The ships' deployment angered North Korea, which said it proved Pyongyang was right to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself or use in a pre-emptive strike.
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