Alwaght- Chinese President has called his US counterpart and urged restraint on North Korea, days before a fleet of US warships are due to arrive in the tense Korean Peninsula.
The conversation between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump came amid reports that North Korea will conduct another nuclear or missile test to mark on Tuesday the 85th anniversary of the founding of its Korean People's Army.
"(China) hopes that the relevant parties can maintain restraint and avoid actions that would increase tensions in the Korean Peninsula," Xi said, according to a statement from the foreign ministry in Beijing.
"The only way to realize denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula and quickly resolve North Korea's nuclear problem is for each relevant party to fulfil its duties."
This was the second phone call between the two leaders since their first meeting in the US state of Florida early this month.
Speaking in Sydney on Saturday, US Vice President Mike Pence said the American aircraft carrier Carl Vinson would arrive in the Sea of Japan, bordering the Korean Peninsula, "in a matter of days".
The ship joined other warships for joint exercises with Japan in the Philippine Sea on Sunday. Meanwhile, North Korea threatened to sink the US Navy aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might as Washington continues its provocative military maneuvers in the western Pacific.
"Our revolutionary forces are combat-ready to sink a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a single strike," the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party, said in a commentary.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, two of them last year, and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States.
Pyongyang insists that developing its military defenses including nuclear weapons is important to counter incessant provocations by the US including a possible aggression.
