Beijing: China responded to US President Donald Trump's apocalyptic "fire and fury" threat against North Korea by pointedly warning today against any rhetoric that could inflame tensions over Pyongyang's weapons programmes.
Calling the situation on the Korean Peninsula "complicated and sensitive", China's foreign ministry issued a statement warning that parties involved in the impasse should avoid "words and actions that escalate the situation".
The ministry had been asked to respond to Trump's comment on Tuesday that North Korea would "be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen" if it did not refrain from further bellicose threats against the United States.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged North Korea on Tuesday to make a "smart decision", after the United Nations imposed tough new sanctions on the isolated regime over its missile and nuclear programmes. "It will help the DPRK to make the right and smart decision," Wang told reporters, according to a translator, after discussing the sanctions with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Hong-Yo ahead of a regional security forum in the Philippine capital Manila. However Wang also emphasised that negotiations were the only way to solve the issue, after the US had left open the possibility of military action against the north.