Rex Tillerson begins tense China meeting with Wang Yi
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is meeting his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing in the final leg of his East Asia tour, which has been dominated by anxieties over North Korea.
On Friday, Mr Tillerson warned Pyongyang that a military response would be on the table if it threatened South Korea or US forces.
President Donald Trump tweeted that North Korea was "behaving very badly".
He added that China - Pyongyang's main ally - had done "little to help".
Beijing is likely to express its anger at being told to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea during Mr Tillerson's visit.
It will also voice its opposition to a new US missile defence system installed in South Korea earlier this month .
Collision course: By Carrie Gracie, BBC China editor
Recent North Korean missile tests have only raised the stakes for Mr Tillerson's talks in Beijing.
President Trump has again suggested China is not doing enough to help.
But the Chinese government insists it already observes UN sanctions against Pyongyang and bristles at the deployment of a new American anti-missile system in South Korea.
Beijing says all players on the Korean peninsula are like accelerating trains on a collision course. It warns that the only way to make North Korea disarm is through dialogue… which is something the US secretary of state has already ruled out.
As the first senior Trump administration official to visit China, Mr Tillerson will also discuss plans for a possible presidential summit next month. The timing is hardly auspicious.
China's global gamble in era of Trump
The US says the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system (Thaad) is designed to protect against threats from North Korea.
But China has claimed the system goes "far beyond" the defence needs of the Korean peninsula.
Mr Tillerson, a former oil executive with no prior diplomatic experience, is scheduled to meet China's two most senior diplomats on Saturday. On Sunday, he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mr Xi is scheduled to visit the United States next month for his first meeting with President Trump.
Some commentators expect Mr Tillerson to downplay any tensions between the two countries ahead of that encounter.
However, a US official told Reuters that Mr Tillerson may raise the prospect of imposing "secondary sanctions" on Chinese banks and other firms that do business with North Korea in defiance of sanctions.
North Korea launched four ballistic missiles last week, and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the US.
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I believe that Trump and Tiillerson are intentionally ignoring and belittling the limited influence China has over North Korea because they want a war on the Korean peninsula to distract from their problem domestically and their Russian connections here at home. Would they start a war with North Korea where tens of thousand would die, including thousands of American troops just to change the subject of bullshit problems here? Oh absolutely no doubt about it and they appear to be setting up just such a situation. Nothing distracts Americans from Trump's campaign collusion, lies about wiretapping and bromance and his unbridled, nearly sick, love of Putin like flag draped coffins flying into Dover AFB by the dozens. And it's not like Trump or Tillerson give shit about America troops lives anyway. You can bet no Trumps or Kushners will be fighting. Trump and Tillerson WANT a war!
Either they purposely are intentionally ignoring and belittling the limited influence China has over North Korea because they want a war on the Korean peninsula or it's just as possible, they don't have any idea of what they are doing, which can be even more scary. Neither of them have any experience at all in international diplomacy and it is entirely possible that they are just too stupid to realize that China does not have as much control over Kim Jung Un as they think they do. Trump and Tillerson seem to think that all China has to do is to snap their fingers and Un will fall into place, but he is insane and will not respond. If Trump chooses the "military option" in dealing with the North he will be setting off a war where 10s or if not 100's of thousands of people will die. North Korea has thousands of missiles on their Southern border, many of which can reach Japan and the anti-missile system we sent over there is not going to be able to stop them all and probably not even most. Also there are 300,000 Americans living in South Korea and almost 40,000 American troops. Many, if not most of them, will die in the first 48 hours. Either way, if they choose the "military option" it will not be a failure of China.
IMO, China has no where near the influence over NK that it is believe they do. The last missile launch was a direct slap in the face to China. China has just cut off all coal imported from NK. This is one of NK few sources of foreign currency.
Also the assassination of the half brother of NK great leader was another slap in the face to China since he was under the protection of China while in Hong Kong and Macau.
If history is any lesson it's time to remember what Mao told Truman, don't put troops on the Yulu river or we will enter the war. (Korean War)...We did and they did enter the war.
If we start a shooting war in NK which borders China, I don't expect China to sit there on their hands.
This is in addition to the lives of American's, South Koreans, et al in the region.
The situation with NK is very volatile, and one wrong move could cost thousans of lives, and some of those will be American.
And Kim Jung Un is much more volatile and unstable then his father Kim Jung Il was. His father actually was more influenced by China, mostly because he felt more in debt to their help during the still in effect Korean war, which has never been declared over. China can try to get Un to back off, but Un is determined to become a full fledged, fully functional member of the nuclear armed nations family and there is really little or nothing China can do about it. By saying we refuse to talk to Un we have already said that we are going to use military power to stop their program. I just hope that the diapered lunatic in the oval office doesn't decide to use a nuclear strike to do it. A rational human being needs to be between him and the nuclear codes as he has proven time and time again that he is much too thin-skinned, too easily provoked and childlike to be trusted to make a decision like that. I suggest he should be required to go through the Joint Chiefs and/or the Secretary of Defense before being able to launch a first strike nuclear weapon. I also suggest that America NEVER launch a first strike with a nuclear weapon. Ever. There is never a reason for it that justifies it. None.