China Warns Against Force as North Korea Prepares Celebration

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Military force cannot resolve tension over North Korea, China said on Thursday, while an influential Chinese newspaper urged the North to halt its nuclear programme in exchange for Chinese protection.

Graphic - The Carl Vinson Strike Group: here

Concerns have been growing that North Korea could soon conduct a sixth nuclear test or more missile launches in defiance of U.N. sanctions and stark warnings from the United States that a policy of patience was over.

With a U.S. aircraft carrier group steaming to the area in a show of force and tensions rising, fears of a confrontation have been rising.

China, North Korea's sole major ally and neighbour, which nevertheless opposes its weapons programme, has called for talks leading to a peaceful resolution and the denuclearisation of the peninsula.

"Military force cannot resolve the issue," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing. "Amid tensions we will also find a kind of opportunity to return to talks."

While U.S. President Donald Trump has put North Korea on notice that he would not tolerate any provocation, U.S. officials have said his administration was focussing its strategy on tougher economic sanctions.

Trump said on Thursday Pyongyang was a problem that "will be taken care of" and that he believed Chinese President Xi Jinping would "work very hard" to help resolve the challenge.

Trump has also said the United States is prepared to tackle the crisis without China, if necessary.

Trump diverted the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group towards the Korean peninsula last weekend in a show of force to try to deter North Korea from conducting another nuclear test or launching more missiles to coincide with important events and anniversaries.

But a senior Trump administration official described as "flat wrong" an NBC News report citing senior U.S. intelligence officials as saying the United States is prepared to launch a pre-emptive conventional weapons strike should officials be convinced North Korea was about to follow through with a nuclear weapons test.

Another U.S. official also dismissed the report, calling it "speculative at best."

The Pentagon declined comment, saying, as a policy, it does not discuss future operations "nor publicly speculate on possible scenarios."

REUTERS