Chinese
President Xi Jinping called for all sides to exercise restraint on Monday in a
call with U.S. President Donald Trump, as a nervous South Korea and Japan
sought to join drills with a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group headed for
Korean waters.
Reclusive
North Korea said at the weekend it was ready to sink the U.S. aircraft carrier,
the USS Carl Vinson, which Trump had ordered to waters off the Korean peninsula
as a warning to the nuclear-armed North.
Japan said on
Sunday it had sent two Japanese destroyers to join the carrier group for
drills, and South Korea said it was also in talks about holding joint naval
exercises.
China is
increasingly worried the situation may spin out of control, leading to war and
a chaotic collapse of its isolated and poverty-struck neighbor.
Xi told Trump
that China resolutely opposes any actions that run counter to U.N. Security
Council resolutions, a Chinese foreign ministry statement said.
China
"hopes that all relevant sides exercise restraint, and avoid doing
anything to worsen the tense situation on the peninsula", the statement
paraphrased Xi as saying.
The nuclear
issue can only be resolved quickly with all relevant countries pulling in the
same direction, and China is willing to work with all parties, including the
United States, to ensure peace, Xi said.
Tensions have
risen sharply in recent months, with Washington and its allies fearing
Pyongyang could conduct another nuclear missile test or launch more ballistic
missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
North Korea
celebrates the 85th anniversary of the foundation of its Korean People's Army
on Tuesday, and has marked similar events in the past with nuclear tests or
missile launches.
"REPEATED
PROVOCATION"
Earlier,
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described his conversation with Trump as a
"thorough exchange of views".
"We
agreed to strongly demand that North Korea, which is repeating its provocation,
show restraint," Abe told reporters.
"We will
maintain close contact with the United States, keep a high level of vigilance
and respond firmly," he said.
Abe also said
he and Trump agreed that China, North Korea's sole major ally, should play a
large role in dealing with Pyongyang.
A Japanese
official said the phone call between Trump and Abe was not prompted by any
specific change in the situation.
The U.S.
government has not specified where the carrier strike group is, but U.S. Vice
President Mike Pence said on Saturday it would arrive "within days".
South Korean
Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun gave no further details about the
South's plans, other than saying Seoul was holding discussions with the U.S.
Navy.
"I can
say the South Korean and U.S. militaries are fully ready for North Korea's nuclear
test," Moon said.
South Korean
and U.S. officials have feared for some time that North Korea could soon carry
out its sixth nuclear test.
Satellite
imagery analyzed 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.
However, the
group said it was unclear whether the site was in a "tactical pause"
before another test or was carrying out normal operations.
Adding to the
heightened tensions, North Korea detained a U.S. citizen on Saturday as he
attempted to leave the country.
*Reuters*
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