US president says he wants to seek a diplomatic solution to crisis in Korea and reveals China is helping to pressure Kim Jong-un 
 
 Donald Trump has said that a “major conflict” is possible with North Korea though he would prefer to solve the standoff over the country’s nuclear and missile programmes through diplomacy. 
 
 Trump’s warning on Thursday came towards the end of a week where the administration has made a concerted effort to restrain Pyongyang from carrying out major new weapons tests. 
 
 'We are a target': South Korean village wakes up on frontline with North Read more 
 
 At the same time, US officials sought to clarify US policy after a variety of mixed signals in the administration’s first 100 days. 
 
 
 
 Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, said that the US would be prepared to enter into direct talks with the regime of Kim Jong-un, but that it would have to prepare to negotiate getting rid of all its nuclear weapons. 
 
 The opening to diplomacy came as the head of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris told the Senate that the standoff with North Korea was the worst he had seen. It was an assessment echoed by the president. 
 
 “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters. 
 
 “We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” the president added. 
 
 
 
 Trump suggested there had been a breakthrough in Chinese readiness to help apply pressure on Kim since Xi Jinping visited the US president in Florida earlier this month. 
 
 “I believe he [the Chinese president] is trying very hard. He certainly doesn’t want to see turmoil and death. He doesn’t want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well,” Trump said. 
 
 “With that being said, he loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it’s possible that he can’t.” 
 
 What threat does North Korea pose to South Korea? The North may have found a way to make a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile, but firing one at the South is likely to provoke retaliation in kind, which would end the regime. Pyongyang has enough conventional artillery to do significant damage to Seoul, but the quality of its gunners and munitions is dubious, and the same problem – retaliation from the South and its allies - remains. In the event of a non-nuclear attack, Seoul's residents would act on years of experience of civil defence drills, and rush to the bomb shelters dotted around the city, increasing their chances of survival. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tillerson had earlier said the Chinese had warned Pyongyang, an increasingly unruly client in recent years, that it would impose punitive measures if North Korea carried out provocative tests. 
 
 “We know that China is in communications with the regime in Pyongyang,” he told Fox News. “They confirmed to us that they had requested the regime conduct no further nuclear test.” 
 
 According to Tillerson, the Chinese told the regime “that if they did conduct further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions actions on their own”. 
 
 China refused to confirm or deny the US claim of new pressure. A foreign ministry spokesman reiterated China’s support for UN sanctions on the North, but repeatedly avoided giving a direct answer when asked at a daily press briefing about what other plans China might be considering. 
 
 The US secretary of state said that the North Korean regime viewed its nuclear weapons and missile programmes as a guarantee of survival, and that the Trump administration sought to change that mindset. 
 
 
 
 “We want to change that calculus of theirs and we have said to them: your pathway to survival and security is to eliminate your nuclear weapons and we and other countries will help you on the way to economic development,” Tillerson said. He assured Pyongyang that the US objective was ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, not toppling Kim Jong-un. 
 
 Could Trump’s diplomacy resolve his North Korea crisis? There’s hope | Simon Jenkins Read more 
 
 “We do not seek a regime change in North Korea. We are not seeking the collapse of the regime.” 
 
 Tillerson said that the US administration would “wait as long as it takes” for talks to start providing North Korea conducted no new nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests. 
 
 The secretary of state did not directly reply to a question on whether this policy was very similar to the “strategic patience” pursued by the Obama administration, which Tillerson had earlier said had come to an end. 
 
 In his Oval Office interview with Reuters, Trump offered an assessment of Kim. 
 
 
 
 Asked if he considered the North Korean leader to be rational he noted that Kim had taken over his country at an early age. 
 
 “He’s 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age,” he said. 
 
 “I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he’s rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he’s rational,” he said. 
 
 Meanwhile, in a sign that North Korea’s regional neighbours are taking the threat of a conflict seriously, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull warned that Pyongyang could launch a nuclear attack on nations and claimed China has not applied enough pressure on the regime. 
 
 
 
 “There is the possibility and the risk that North Korea could launch an attack on its neighbours,” Turnbull said on 3AW radio. 
 
 
 
 “That is the reason why there is so much effort being put into seeking to stop this reckless and dangerous conduct by the North Korean regime. They are a real threat to the peace and stability in the region and to the whole world.” 
 
 
 
 Turnbull said while North Korea was often a subject of satire, the country had nuclear weapons and regularly threatened to use them. 
 
 
 
 “Their threats can appear sometimes to be theatrical and over the top and they have been the subject of satire but I can assure you that my government takes ... the threat of North Korea very seriously,” he said. 
 
 On Friday morning Tillerson will chair a special ministerial session of the UN security council on North Korea, aimed at convincing other members to impose existing sanctions on Pyongyang more rigorously. 
 
 In Washington, the head of the Arms Control Association, Daryl Kimball, welcomed the Trump administration’s readiness for direct talks with North Korea. 
 
 “There are some new things here. They are making clear that regime change is not the goal. There is a recognition that North Korea has security concerns,” Kimball said. “I think what we hearing the evening is more of the engagement part of the maximum pressure engagement policy that they are slowly rolling out.” 
 
 He added: “It’s going to require persistence and patience.” ||||| (Adds U.S. official plays down report in 11th paragraph, no comment from Pentagon) 
 
 * South Korea expects to be told of any pre-emptive U.S. strike 
 
 * China urges North Korea to halt nuclear programme 
 
 * Tension rises as U.S. carrier group steams towards Korean peninsula 
 
 * Trump strategy focusing on economic sanctions - U.S. officials 
 
 By Michael Martina and Sue-Lin Wong 
 
 BEIJING/PYONGYANG, April 13 (Reuters) - 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. 
 
 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 focusing 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.” 
 
 Scores of foreign journalists are gathered in Pyongyang for North Korea’s biggest national day, the “Day of the Sun”, marking he 105th anniversary of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung on Saturday. 
 
 They were taken to what officials billed as a “big and important event” early on Thursday which turned out to be the opening of a new street in the centre of the capital, attended by current leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
 In 2012, two days before the centenary of Kim Il Sung’s death, it tried but failed to launch a long-range rocket carrying a satellite. It tested a newly developed intermediate-range missile on the anniversary last year, a launch that also failed. 
 
 A Washington-based think tank that monitors North Korea, 38 North, said satellite images on Wednesday showed activity around the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site on the east coast that indicated it was ready for a new test. 
 
 South Korean and U.S. officials and the think tank have been saying for weeks that North Korea could test a sixth bomb at any time. 
 
 U.S. HOPES FOR CHINA INFLUENCE 
 
 CIA director Mike Pompeo said North Korea was closer now than it had ever been to being able to threaten the United States with a nuclear-tipped intercontinental missile and increased its technical know-how with each new test. 
 
 This in turn reduced U.S. options and “makes it more likely that you get a bad decision, a tough day for the leader of North Korea,” he told Washington’s Center for Strategic and International studies. 
 
 Asked if there was hope that China would do more to slow or suspend its nuclear programme, he replied: “I’m counting on it.” 
 
 Speculation about U.S. military action grew after the U.S. Navy fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield last week in response to a deadly gas attack. 
 
 Washington said North Korea should see the strikes as a sign of U.S. resolve, but U.S. officials have played down the prospect of any military strike against North Korea, which would likely provoke massive North Korean retaliation and huge casualties in Japan and South Korea and among U.S. forces in both countries. 
 
 The United States has remained technically at war with North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty and the past six decades have been punctuated by periodic rises in tension and rhetoric that has always stopped short of a resumption of active hostilities. 
 
 Analysts have interpreted China’s warnings as an effort to persuade North Korea to shelve plans for more tests. 
 
 Wang warned that history would hold any instigator to account. 
 
 “Whoever provokes the situation, whoever continues to make trouble in this place, they will have to assume historical responsibility,” Wang said. 
 
 South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told parliament in Seoul he believed Washington would consult Seoul if it was considering a pre-emptive strike. 
 
 An influential state-backed Chinese newspaper, the Global Times, said North Korea’s best option was to give up its nuclear programme, and added that China would protect it if it did. 
 
 “As soon as North Korea complies with China’s declared advice and suspends nuclear activities ... China will actively work to protect the security of a denuclearised North Korean nation and regime,” it said in an editorial. 
 
 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe underscored fears about North Korea, saying it could have the capacity to deliver missiles equipped with sarin nerve gas. 
 
 But a senior Japanese diplomat said Japan also did not see a high risk of military action. 
 
 On Tuesday, North Korea warned of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of American aggression. The White House dismissed the threat, saying there was no evidence North Korea could carry it out. 
 
 North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United States and South Korea. 
 
 U.S. officials said Trump was considering sanctions that could include an oil embargo, banning North Korea’s airline, intercepting cargo ships, and punishing Chinese banks doing business with it. 
 
 Customs data in Beijing on Thursday showed China’s coal imports from North Korea had plunged 51.6 percent in the first three months in 2017 from a year earlier. 
 
 China suspended permit issuance for North Korean coal imports on Feb. 18 as part of its effort to implement U.N. sanctions. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Trump says North Korea will be in "big, big trouble" if it acts against Guam 
 
 China's President Xi Jinping has urged Donald Trump and North Korea to avoid "words and actions" that worsen tensions, state media say. 
 
 Mr Trump and North Korea have been exchanging hostile rhetoric, with the US president threatening to rain "fire and fury" on the North. 
 
 But China, North Korea's only major ally, has been urging restraint. 
 
 A White House statement said the US and China agreed North Korea must stop "provocative and escalatory behaviour". 
 
 A statement by North Korea's official KCNA news agency issued on Saturday said the Trump administration "had better talk and act properly," if it did not want "the American empire to meet its tragic doom". 
 
 Long-standing tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme worsened when it tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. 
 
 The regime was also angered by last week's UN decision to increase economic sanctions against it. 
 
 According to Chinese state media, Mr Xi told Mr Trump in a phone call that "all relevant parties" should stop "words and deeds" that would exacerbate the situation. 
 
 Mr Xi also stressed China and the US shared "common interests" over denuclearisation and maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Video of a phone call from Donald Trump was posted by the governor of Guam, Eddie Calvo. 
 
 A White House statement on the phone call did not mention the apparent plea to the US president. 
 
 It stressed the two men enjoyed a close relationship, which would "hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem". 
 
 President Trump has previously chided China for not reining in North Korea, saying it could do "a lot more". 
 
 From 'fire and fury' to 'locked and loaded' 
 
 Tuesday: "North Korea, best not make any more threats to the United States," Mr Trump tells reporters. "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen" 
 
 Wednesday: Mr Trump boasts that the US nuclear arsenal is "more powerful than ever" 
 
 Thursday: He says that his "fire and fury" warning maybe "wasn't tough enough". Asked what would be tougher than fire and fury, he replies, "you'll see" 
 
 Friday: The US president warns that military solutions are "locked and loaded" should North Korea "act unwisely". 
 
 North Korea has announced plans to fire missiles near the Pacific territory of Guam, but there is no indication an attack is imminent. 
 
 On Friday, Mr Trump issued a fresh threat against North Korea, saying it should expect "big, big trouble" if anything happened to Guam. 
 
 But he added: "Hopefully, it will all work out. Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump, that I can tell you." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption It's not the first time North Korea has made threats against Guam 
 
 Mr Trump also called the governor of Guam on Friday to reassure him that his island was safe. 
 
 "We are with you 1,000%," Mr Trump said in the phone call, recorded and posted on YouTube by Governor Eddie Calvo. 
 
 Pyongyang has accused Mr Trump of "driving" the Korean peninsula to the "brink of a nuclear war". 
 
 Russia said the exchange of threats between Washington and North Korea worried Moscow "very much". Germany has also expressed alarm. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US ambassador Nikki Haley: "Kim Jong-un is begging for war" 
 
 The US envoy to the UN has urged the Security Council to take the "strongest possible measures" against North Korea after its latest nuclear test. 
 
 "The time has come to exhaust all diplomatic means before it is too late," Nikki Haley told an emergency meeting of the council in New York. 
 
 The US will circulate a draft resolution, for a vote next Monday. 
 
 South Korea is poised to scrap a warhead weight limit on its own missiles after talks with the US. 
 
 President Moon Jae-in reached agreement by phone with his counterpart, Donald Trump. Missiles are currently capped at 500kg (1,100lb). 
 
 The country carried out live-fire exercises on Monday, simulating an attack on the North's nuclear test site. 
 
 Reports suggest the North is preparing new test missile launches. It tested a nuclear bomb underground on Sunday. Estimates of its power range from 50 kilotonnes to 120 kilotonnes. A 50kt device would be about three times the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. 
 
 In other developments: 
 
 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would press for tougher EU sanctions on North Korea, agreeing with Mr Trump by phone on the need for stricter sanctions 
 
 Swiss President Doris Leuthard said her country was prepared to act as a mediator and called for more discreet negotiations, saying "Twitter won't be an adequate instrument" 
 
 Japan is planning, in the event of war, for a mass evacuation of nearly 60,000 Japanese citizens currently living in or visiting South Korea, Nikkei Asian Review reports 
 
 'Begging for war' 
 
 Opening Monday's meeting, UN Under Secretary General Jeffrey Feltman said North Korea's actions were destabilising global security, and he called on Pyongyang to abide by Security Council resolutions. 
 
 "The DPRK [North Korea] is the only country that continues to break the norm against nuclear test explosions," he said. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption The UN Security Council last imposed sanctions in August, targeting North Korean exports 
 
 Ms Haley argued that only the strongest sanctions would enable the problem to be resolved through diplomacy. 
 
 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had shown through his actions that he was "begging for war", she said. 
 
 "War is never something the United States wants," she continued. "We don't want it now but our country's patience is not unlimited." 
 
 She was speaking after President Trump warned the US might consider stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea. 
 
 "The United States will look at every country that does business with North Korea as a country that is giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions," Ms Haley said. 
 
 The British ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, said direct talks with North Korea were only possible if Pyongyang stopped the escalation. 
 
 "Dialogue will always be our end goal but returning to dialogue without a serious sign of intent from Pyongyang would be a set-up to failure," he said. "North Korea must change course to allow a return to dialogue." 
 
 China's envoy to the UN, Liu Jieyi, reiterated a call for all sides to return to negotiations. "The peninsula issue must be resolved peacefully," he said. "China will never allow chaos and war on the peninsula." 
 
 What happens next? 
 
 By Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent 
 
 China is key but it is a conflicted party. On the one hand it does not want to see a nuclear-armed North Korea and it has made its view clear to Pyongyang on many occasions. 
 
 However, it does not want to see the North Korean regime swept away. This would result in millions of refugees flooding into China and would probably result in a unified Korea very much in the US orbit. This is seen in Beijing as worse than having a difficult nuclear neighbour. 
 
 If China were to take the view that the coincidence of a rapidly advancing North Korean nuclear programme and the uncertainties of the Trump administration's diplomatic capabilities means that there is a very real risk of misunderstanding and catastrophe, then maybe it might bring much greater pressure to bear on Pyongyang. 
 
 North Korea is a very isolated country and China is both its major ally and economic prop. There is a lot more that China can do. North Korea's recent testing has been as much an embarrassment to China as it has angered the US. But the Chinese have a difficult diplomatic calculation to make. 
 
 Full version of analysis 
 
 What other sanctions remain? 
 
 Last month, the Security Council voted unanimously to ban North Korean exports and limit investments in the country. 
 
 Ms Haley did not spell out what additional measures might be taken but diplomats have suggested an oil embargo would have a crippling effect. 
 
 There could also be a ban on the North's national airline, curbs on North Koreans working abroad, and asset freezes and travel bans on officials. 
 
 How big was the latest test? 
 
 It was North Korea's sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date. The US Geological Survey recorded a resulting tremor at 6.3 magnitude. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nuclear N Korea: What do we know? 
 
 Kim Jong-un was pictured on camera being shown what state media said was a new type of hydrogen bomb. 
 
 South Korea said it was now presumed that the North had reduced its nuclear warhead in size to below 500kg, and would be able to attach one to an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). 
 
 But analysts have said the North's claims about miniaturisation should be treated with considerable caution. 
 
 Earlier on Monday, a South Korean defence ministry official said there were signs of "possibly more ballistic missile launches", including an ICBM. 
 
 How else are the South and its US ally responding? 
 
 Monday's drills simulated the targeting of the Punggye-ri nuclear site in Kilju County, where North Korea carried out its bomb test. Missiles were fired from the ground and rockets from fighter jets. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption South Korea carries out live-fire drills in response to the nuclear test 
 
 The defence ministry in Seoul said there would be more live-fire drills in the South this month, involving Taurus air-to-surface missiles mounted on F-15 jets. 
 
 The ministry also told parliament the US would seek to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to seas off the peninsula. 
 
 Four more launchers of the US Thaad (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence) missile defence system -strongly opposed by China and Russia - would also be deployed to join two already at a site in Seongju, south of Seoul. 
 
 North Korea's nuclear tests ||||| (CNN) North Korea's foreign minister has delivered a scornful response to US President Donald Trump's threat to destroy the hermit kingdom, likening it to the sound of "a dog barking." 
 
 Ri Yong Ho, who is in the US for the United Nations General Assembly, said he "felt sorry" for the President's advisers after a fiery speech to the UN on Tuesday. 
 
 In his debut address to world leaders, Trump vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if the US was forced to defend its allies. 
 
 Referring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by a nickname he first used in in a tweet Sunday , Trump said: "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime." 
 
 Ri, in his country's first response to Trump's speech, was derisive. "If he was thinking he could scare us with the sound of a dog barking, that's really a dog dream," Ri told reporters outside his hotel in New York. In Korean, a dog dream is one that is absurd and makes little sense. 
 
 When asked about Trump's use of the "rocket man" nickname, Ri said: "I feel sorry for his aides." 
 
 North Korean diplomats were not present for Trump's speech. 
 
 North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, left, shakes hands with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk as he leaves the Pyongyang Airport on Tuesday. 
 
 Little chance of meeting 
 
 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also in New York, but played down the possibility of a meeting with his North Korean counterpart. 
 
 Pyongyang and Washington do not maintain formal diplomatic relations and the presence of North Korea's top diplomat in the US could have afforded a rare chance for high-level, face-to-face dialogue. 
 
 Tillerson told reporters he did not believe he could have a "matter-of-fact discussion with North Korea because we don't know how their means of communication and behavior will be." 
 
 JUST WATCHED N. Korean FM at UN poses chance for dialogue Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH N. Korean FM at UN poses chance for dialogue 02:50 
 
 Tillerson claimed there were signs that increased international pressure on North Korea was starting to bear fruit. He said there was evidence of fuel shortages in the country after the passage of recent UN sanctions , which targeted oil imports among other things. 
 
 However, analysts pointed out that fuel shortages did not necessarily prove that sanctions were having an effect, as most North Koreans don't own cars or use fuel at anywhere near the rate of the rest of the world. 
 
 Anthony Ruggiero, an expert in the use of targeted financial measures at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said sanctions rarely hit fast. Any lines for gas were "probably more due to the regime stockpiling fuel in anticipation that China would implement the restriction," Ruggiero, who worked at both the State Department and Treasury Department, told CNN. 
 
 Humanitarian aid 
 
 Trump is scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in Thursday, two important US allies on North Korea's doorstop. 
 
 Top of the agenda is likely to be South Korea's surprise decision to send an $8 million aid package to North Korea. The move, which runs contrary to the US and Japan's calls for an increase in economic and diplomatic pressure, marks a resumption in South Korean aid after a break of almost two years. 
 
 In statement Wednesday, the South's Unification Ministry said the decision to resume aid was in line with "the government's stance that it separates the provision of humanitarian aid from politics and it continues to provide aid to improve the humanitarian situation of North Korean residents and the quality of their lives." 
 
 The South said it planned to send $4.5 million worth of medical treatments, nursery facilities and nutritional products for children and pregnant women through the World Food Programme, and $3.5 million worth of medicinal treatments and nutritional products through UNICEF. 
 
 The precise timing and actual provision would be dependent on various factors, including "inter-Korean relations," the ministry said in a statement. 
 
 Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the North Korean situation in a phone call Monday, the White House said. Accounting for about 90% of North Korea's imports, Beijing is seen by many as the key to any North Korea strategy. 
 
 While China voted in favor of the two most recent UN resolutions against North Korea, Chinese diplomats have called for calm as Trump's rhetoric has heated up, and editorials in Chinese state media have continued to assail the US President's approach to diplomacy. 
 
 "It is time for the US to realize that irresponsible words and actions are backing the DPRK into a corner with no way out, and it would be a tragedy if Trump's risky game of chicken with the DPRK crosses the point of no return," read an editorial published Thursday in the People's Daily , the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. 
 
 "Rather than hurl threats and try to pass the buck to China, the US should accept its responsibility, and do more to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation."
– President Trump says he wants to resolve America's differences with Pyongyang peacefully—but there is the chance we "could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea." Trump tells Reuters that the country is currently his biggest international worry. Asked whether he considers Kim Jong Un rational, Trump said it would have been tough for the leader to take over the country at 27 after his father died. "I'm not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I'm just saying that's a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he's rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he's rational." In other developments: Rex Tillerson told Fox News on Thursday that he believes Kim is ruthless but sane, Politico reports. "He may be a murderer. He may be someone who in many respects we would say by our standards is irrational," the secretary of state said. "But he is not insane." Tillerson also said China had threatened North Korea with sanctions if it carried out further nuclear tests. "We know that China is in communications with the regime in Pyongyang," he said. "They confirmed to us that they had requested the regime conduct no further nuclear tests." The Guardian reports that China refused to confirm or deny the claim. In the Reuters interview, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping's efforts to help rein in North Korea. "I believe he is trying very hard. He certainly doesn't want to see turmoil and death," Trump said. "He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well." Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations issued a statement Friday calling for calm, the AP reports. They expressed "grave concern" over North Korea's nuclear tests and urged all parties to "exercise self-restraint in order to de-escalate the tension and refrain from actions that may aggravate the situation." Ministers from the 10-nation bloc will meet in Manila in the Philippines on Saturday. In a second interview Thursday, Tillerson, who will chair a UN Security Council meeting on the issue Friday, told NPR that the US is open to holding direct talks with North Korea if Pyongyang agrees to consider giving up its nuclear weapons. "We do not seek a collapse of the regime," he said. "We do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula. We seek a denuclearized Korean peninsula." North Korea released a new propaganda video Thursday that showed simulated attacks on the US, with the White House and aircraft carriers in the crosshairs, the Washington Post reports. "We will show you what a strong country that leads the world in nuclear and missile technology is capable of," a caption said. (Beijing is rumored to be behind a serious gas shortage in Pyongyang.)