A day before North Korea marks a major holiday, the US Trump administration sought to increase pressure on Pyongyang, holding presidential phone calls with China and Japan before a supercarrier heads toward the peninsula.
The move comes just days after North Korea stated it is prepared to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier headed for the Korean peninsula, according to a report in the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the country's ruling Workers' party, published on Sunday.
He said they agreed to strongly urge North Korea, which continues to make unsafe provocations, to show self-restraint.
He referred to a joint drill involving Japanese destroyers and the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group now underway in the Western Pacific.
The calls came amid speculation North Korea may be preparing a nuclear test in celebration of Tuesday's anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army.
China's official broadcaster CCTV quoted Mr Xi as telling the USA president that his government strongly opposes North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, which is in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and hoped "all parties" will avoid aggravating the situation'.
"We agreed to strongly demand that North Korea, which is repeating its provocation, show restraint", Abe told reporters.
"Make no mistake, North Korea is a threat to the region and potentially globally and it must be stopped in its attempts to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that are capable of targeting the United States and other countries in our region", she said.
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Abe also said he and Trump agreed that China should play a large role in dealing with it.
Confusion has clouded the carrier group's whereabouts in recent days after President Donald Trump suggested the "armada" was steaming towards North Korea when in fact it was sent towards Australia.
"I can say the South Korean and U.S. militaries are fully ready for North Korea's nuclear test", Moon said.
"The world would clearly see how the US' rash, arrogant aircraft carriers turn into a lump of scrap metal and gets buried at sea, and how the country vanishes from the Earth", state-run website Uriminzokkiri said.
Gasoline appears to be in short supply in North Korea amid signs that China has cut off the flow to dissuade the North from conducting another nuclear test.
Adding to the heightened tensions, North Korea detained a US citizen on Saturday as he attempted to leave the country.
Satellite imagery analysed by 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, found some activity under way at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site last week.
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