He says another nuclear test would invite tougher measures from Beijing, possibly including new restrictions on Chinese companies' investments in North Korea and cuts in the number of Chinese tourists allowed to visit. "That is something that our headquarters decides", Han said.
There are reports of activity at a nuclear test site in North Korea ahead of Saturday's 105th anniversary of the birth of the country's founder Kim Il-Sung, which have fuelled speculation it could carry out a sixth test.
On Friday, Beijing's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said no one can win on the Korean peninsula through the use of force.
"If North Korea conducts a strategic provocation such as a nuclear test or an intercontinental ballistic missile launch, there is certain to be powerful punitive measure that will be hard for the North Korean regime to endure", the South's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The US introduces into the Korean peninsula, the world's biggest hotspot, huge nuclear strategic assets, seriously threatening peace and security of the peninsula and pushing the situation there to the brink of a war", the North's KCNA news agency said on Friday, citing the statement.
I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. "No matter who it is, if it wants to make war or trouble on the Korean Peninsula, it must take the historical responsibility and pay the due price".
The rhetoric coming out of North Korea continues to heat up as tensions between that Far East nation and the United States rise.
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The US joint-operation with South Korea was an attempt to unsettle North Korea after recent ballistic missile tests in the region. Trump said later on Wednesday the United States is prepared to tackle the crisis surrounding North Korea without China if necessary.
The country's vice foreign minister, Han Song Ryol, was quoted by media, as saying that the Korean Peninsula is passing through a "vicious cycle".
"If the US comes up with a unsafe military option, then the first card is in our hands".
Trump also flexed his military muscle last week by ordering cruise missile strikes on a Syrian airbase the U.S. believed was the origin of a chemical weapons attack on civilians in a northern Syria town. "It's not the DPRK but the U.S. and Trump that makes trouble".
Even without nuclear weapons, the North could cause severe damage with its conventional artillery batteries aimed at the South Korean capital of Seoul.
Han told AP that Pyongyang won't "keep its arms crossed" in the face of a USA pre-emptive strike. If true, the report shows a dramatic escalation in USA policy thinking on the issue. Pyongyang recently tested a ballistic missile and claims it is close to perfecting an intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear warhead that could attack the U.S. mainland.
His comments come as the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier to waters off the Korean peninsula.
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