Nuclear-armed North Korea poses an "overt threat, a declared threat to the world", US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Beijing on Wednesday following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test earlier this month.
Washington is pushing for a strong United Nations response to the North's latest atomic blast — which Pyongyang said was a miniaturised hydrogen bomb. The claim was largely dismissed by experts. But China, North Korea's chief diplomatic protector and economic benefactor, is reluctant, despite the pair's ties becoming strained in recent years as Beijing's patience wears thin with its neighbour's ambitions for nuclear weapons.
The two powers -- both permanent members of the UN Security Council -- had agreed to mount an "accelerated effort" to try to resolve their differences on a new resolution, Kerry media. But he acknowledged that they had not agreed on the "parameters of exactly what it would do or say".
"The United States will do what is necessary to protect the people of our country and our friends and allies in the world," Kerry added. Wang said that China also backed a new Security Council motion, but added that it "should not provoke new tension in the situation". Beijing's ties with Pyongyang were forged in the blood of the Korean War and analysts say its leverage is mitigated by its overriding fear of a North Korean collapse and the prospect of a reunified, US-allied Korea directly on its border.