China has said it will ban exports of some petroleum products to North Korea, as well as imports of textiles from the isolated country, in line with a United Nations security council resolution passed after Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test.



The announcement from Beijing came at the end of a week that saw tensions rise between the US and North Korea, with the leaders of both countries trading insults.

The Chinese ministry of commerce said in a statement that exports of refined petroleum products would be limited from 1 October and exports of condensates and liquefied natural gas would be stopped immediately to comply with the UN sanctions. 



Imports of textiles from North Korea would also be banned immediately but textile trade contracts signed before 11 September would be respected if import formalities were completed before 10 December, the statement said.

The moves follow the adoption of a unanimous UN security council agreement on sanctions after North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on 3 September.

The resolution imposed a ban on condensates and natural gas liquids, a cap of 2m barrels a year on refined petroleum products and a cap on crude oil exports to North Korea at current levels.

Russia urged calm on Friday after the US president, Donald Trump, called his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un a “madman”. Kim had called Trump a “mentally deranged US dotard” a day earlier after Trump said Washington would “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened the US or its allies.

Trump announced new US sanctions on Thursday that he said would allow the targeting of companies and institutions that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea. The US treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also said banks doing business in North Korea would not be allowed to operate in the US.

China has also urged calm, with the foreign minister, Wang Yi, telling his Japanese counterpart that Tokyo should not abandon dialogue over North Korea.

Pyongyang has launched dozens of missiles this year, several of them flying over Japan, as it accelerates a weapons programme aimed at enabling it to target the US with a nuclear-tipped missile.

The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said China’s cutting of oil exports to North Korea was a key move in attempts to force the country to the negotiating table.



“I actually believe oil is the game changer in the sanctions regime,” Bishop said. “China is clearly open to using its undoubted leverage – economic leverage. I’m not suggesting diplomatic, but economic leverage over North Korea, and from my discussions with the US administration I’m confident the US and China are engaged in very serious dialogue about how they are going to bring North Korea to the negotiating table.”

The US and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 war ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Pyongyang accuses the US, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade, and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.</s>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Will North Korea's next nuclear test involve a thermonuclear missile screaming over Japan? That's a question being asked after North Korea's foreign minister said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.

The world hasn't seen an above-ground, atmospheric nuclear test since an inland detonation by China in 1980 and North Korea upending that could push the region dangerously close to war. The room for error would be minimal and any mistake could be disastrous. Even if successful, such a test could endanger air and sea traffic in the region.

Because of that many experts don't think North Korea would take such a risk. But they're also not ruling it out given the North's increasing number of nuclear and missile tests.

The main reason for North Korea to take that risk would be to quiet outside doubts about whether it really has a thermonuclear weapon small enough to fit on a missile, said Jeffrey Lewis, a U.S. arms control expert at the Middlebury Center of International Studies at Monterey. So far North Korea has been separately testing nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles built to deliver them, rather than testing them together.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho wouldn't have spoken without approval from Pyongyang's top leadership when he suggested to reporters in New York on Friday that the country could conduct an atmospheric hydrogen bomb test to fulfill the vows of the country's leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim, in an unusual direct statement to the world, pledged hours earlier to take "highest-level" action against the United States over Donald Trump's threat to "totally destroy" the North if provoked. Ri didn't elaborate and said no one knew what decision Kim would make.

If North Korea attempts an atmospheric nuclear test at sea, it would likely involve its most powerful ballistic missiles, such as the intermediate-range Hwasong-12 or the intercontinental-range Hwasong-14, experts say. The country lacks assets to air-drop a nuclear device and sending a vessel out to sea to detonate a device raises the chances of getting detected and stopped by the U.S. military.

For the nuclear missile to reach a remote part of the Pacific, it would have to fly over Japan, as the North did with two Hwasong-12 test launches in recent weeks.

There have only been a handful of times when atmospheric nuclear tests involved ballistic missiles, including China's fourth nuclear test in 1966. That involved a midrange Dongfeng-2 missile being launched from a deep inland rocket facility to the Lop Nur nuclear test site in the country's far west.

Lewis finds similarities between the current situation surrounding North Korea and the events that led to China's 1966 test, which was driven by U.S. doubts of Chinese capabilities to place nuclear weapons on ballistic missiles.

"The United States is still taking an attitude of skepticism toward North Korea's nuclear capabilities," he said. "The difference, of course, is that China fired its nuclear-armed missile over its own territory, not another country."

A nuclear launch by North Korea would come dangerously close to an act of war, said Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert from South Korea's Science and Technology Policy Institute. Missile tests can easily go wrong and the consequences of failure could be terrifying if the missile is armed with a nuclear weapon.

A failed flight or an accidental detonation over Japan would likely trigger retaliation from Washington and Tokyo that might result in a nuclear war, he said.

"It's reasonable to think that Ri was bluffing," Lee said. "Would they be sure that the United States and Japan will just sit there and watch?"

But Lewis says that's exactly what the United States and Japan will do.

"Although I am sure such a launch would be very alarming to people in Japan, there is little the United States or Japan could do," he said. "Would we really start a war over such an act? I don't think so."

An atmospheric nuclear test would be far more dangerous than detonations in controlled underground environments, both because of the force of the blast and unrestrained release of radioactive materials that could spread out over large areas. Such a launch would potentially endanger aircraft and ships because it's highly unlikely the North would give prior warnings or send naval vessels to the area to control sea traffic.

An atmospheric thermonuclear blast would also raise the risks of damage caused by an electromagnetic pulse, an intense wave of electrical energy generated by the explosion that could destroy electronic devices and equipment over a vast area, Lee said.

The United States and the old Soviet Union combined to conduct more than 400 atmospheric nuclear tests before they joined Britain in a 1963 treaty banning tests in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater. The treaty was later signed by more than 100 other countries. China conducted 22 atmospheric nuclear tests, which frequently involved bombers dropping nuclear devices on test sites, before its last one on 1980.

While the impact of previous tests hasn't been fully understood, damage from radioactive fallout could be serious.

When the United States detonated its most powerful nuclear device in a 1954 test code-named Castle Bravo, the radioactive fallout spread far beyond the test site in the Marshall Islands.

Twenty-three crewmembers of a Japanese fishing vessel that was 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of the detonation site, were contaminated and suffered from radiation sickness. One of the fishermen, Matashichi Oishi, once told The Associated Press that he saw a flash before tiny white flakes fell on the crewmembers like snow.

North Korea in past months has been stepping up the aggressiveness of its nuclear and missile tests.

The North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 in what it claimed as a detonation of a thermonuclear weapon built for its developmental Hwasong-14 ICBMs. In two July flight tests, those missiles displayed the potential ability to reach deep into continental United States.

With its two Hwasong-12 launches over Japan in August and September, the North also broke from its previous test regime of firing missiles at highly lofted angles to reduce range and avoid other countries. The launches were seen as North Korea's attempts to win more military space in a region dominated by its enemies and evaluate the performance and reliability of its missiles under operational conditions.

The North has also threatened to launch a salvo of Hwasong-12s toward Guam, the U.S. Pacific military hub.

Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military official who is now an analyst at Seoul's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said it's more likely that the North's next significant launch would be a full-range test of an unarmed Hwasong-14 ICBM. The North could launch the missile at around 7,000 kilometers (4,349 miles) to display a capability to reach Hawaii or Alaska, he said.

Still, the past months have taught him not to underestimate what the North could do.

"North Korea has repeatedly exceeded my expectations and Kim Jong Un in the statement has vowed to go beyond any expectation," said Kim, the analyst.

AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report from Tokyo.</s>China will soon begin restricting oil exports to North Korea, the country’s Commerce Ministry announced on Saturday, marking a major step by Pyongyang’s top ally and trading partner to further isolate the country from the global economy.

China said the new restrictions are in accordance with United Nations sanctions leveled against the North to stymie its nuclear and missile ambitions. They include a total and immediate ban on natural gas and textile exports, and will limit annual petroleum exports to 2 million barrels beginning on Jan. 1.

“When approaching the upper limit, Chinese government authorities will issue a notice based on the export situation,” said a statement on the Commerce Ministry’s website. “Once it reaches the limit, from the date of implementation, no refined oil products will be exported to North Korea.”

China has been North Korea’s top ally for decades, and now accounts for an estimated 90% of the country’s trade. Yet Beijing has been increasingly uneasy with its northeastern neighbor’s repeated nuclear and missile tests.

Chinese state media have prevaricated on the prospects of an oil ban. In April, the Global Times — a state-run tabloid that often reflects official thinking — raised the prospect of curbing oil exports in retaliation for North Korea’s increasingly provocative behavior. Yet in early September, after North Korea conducted its sixth and biggest-ever nuclear test, it called the prospect of a full oil embargo “rash and extreme.”

“If China completely cuts off the supply of oil to North Korea or even closes the China-North Korea border, it is uncertain whether we can deter Pyongyang from conducting further nuclear tests and missile launches,” it said. “However, confrontation between the two is likely to occur.”

Whether China will fully enforce the restrictions remains unclear.

President Trump has put Beijing at the forefront of U.S. efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program.

On Thursday, Trump announced an executive order authorizing a new round of sanctions aiming to slow North Korea’s progress towards being able to launch a nuclear strike on the continental U.S.. The new sanctions target any company or person doing business with North Korea. He called the nation a “grave threat to peace and security in our world.”



China, in accordance with U.N. sanctions, placed limits on North Korean coal, iron ore, and seafood exports earlier this year.



Gas prices in Pyongyang have spiked by about 20% in the past two months, according to the newswire Agence France Presse.



Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchanged a volley of personal insults this week, further ratcheting up tensions, and neither side shows any sign of backing down. Trump, speaking during the U.N. General Assembly, called Kim “Rocket Man,” and Kim threatened to “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, said on Thursday that the country could soon test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. “We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong Un,” he said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

Gaochao Zhang in the Times’ Beijing bureau contributed to this report

For more news from Asia, follow @JRKaiman on Twitter

Trump announces new sanctions against North Korea, but China's role remains key

Aides warned Trump not to attack North Korea's leader personally before his fiery U.N. address

'Dotard' rockets from obscurity to light up the Trump-Kim exchange, sparking a partisan war of words in U.S.</s>China is imposing new limits on trade with North Korea after the isolated country's latest nuclear test.

China's Ministry of Commerce said Saturday it would limit refined petroleum exports starting Oct. 1 and ban the import of North Korean textiles immediately. It would ban exports of liquefied natural gas to the North immediately as well.

China accounts of about 90 percent North Korea's trade, according to The Associated Press. The BBC estimates the textile ban will cost the North more than $700 million per year.

"Textiles are believed to be the North's biggest source of foreign revenue following rounds of U.N. sanctions under which Beijing cut off purchases of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods," the AP says.

The new restrictions follow the United Nations Security Council's agreement on new sanctions on Sept. 11, as NPR's Richard Gonzales outlined:



"The new sanctions set a cap on crude and refined oil exports to North Korea at 8.5 million barrels per year, which represents a 30 percent reduction, according to U.S. officials. The sale of natural gas will be prohibited and refined petroleum sales will be capped at 2 million barrels annually. The Security Council resolution also bans all North Korea textile exports, worth an average of $760 million over the past three years."



The U.N. sanctions were a response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test, which experts said was its biggest by far, earlier this month. The country also has tested more than a dozen missiles this year, some of which have flown over Japan — a strong U.S. ally.

President Trump has accused China of not putting enough pressure on Kim's regime to step back from its sabre-rattling.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spent the past week trading insults and ratcheting up the already-high tension between the countries. At the United Nations, Trump called Kim "rocket man" and threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea. Kim responded in a statement, calling Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and said "a frightened dog barks louder."

The U.S. put its own sanctions on North Korea on Thursday, against banks or companies doing business with the country.

There have been so many rounds of sanctions against North Korea that it can be hard to keep track.

And it's possible that North Korea is able to undermine them. Reuters reported that North Korean ships have headed home from Russia carrying fuel, despite the ships declaring they were headed somewhere else. Experts say North Korea also uses shell companies to skirt rules.

After earlier U.N. sanctions were approved in August over missile tests this summer, John Delury of Seoul's Yonsei University told NPR's Elise Hu:</s>China is imposing new limits on trade with North Korea after the isolated country's latest nuclear test.

China's Ministry of Commerce said Saturday it would limit refined petroleum exports starting Oct. 1 and ban the import of North Korean textiles immediately. It would ban exports of liquefied natural gas to the North immediately as well.

China accounts of about 90 percent North Korea's trade, according to The Associated Press. The BBC estimates the textile ban will cost the North more than $700 million per year.

"Textiles are believed to be the North's biggest source of foreign revenue following rounds of U.N. sanctions under which Beijing cut off purchases of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods," the AP says.

The new restrictions follow the United Nations Security Council's agreement on new sanctions on Sept. 11, as NPR's Richard Gonzales outlined:

The U.N. sanctions were a response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test, which experts said was its biggest by far, earlier this month. The country also has tested more than a dozen missiles this year, some of which have flown over Japan — a strong U.S. ally.

President Trump has accused China of not putting enough pressure on Kim's regime to step back from its sabre-rattling.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spent the past week trading insults and ratcheting up the already-high tension between the countries. At the United Nations, Trump called Kim "rocket man" and threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea. Kim responded in a statement, calling Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and said "a frightened dog barks louder."

The U.S. put its own sanctions on North Korea on Thursday, against banks or companies doing business with the country.

There have been so many rounds of sanctions against North Korea that it can be hard to keep track.

And it's possible that North Korea is able to undermine them. Reuters reported that North Korean ships have headed home from Russia carrying fuel, despite the ships declaring they were headed somewhere else. Experts say North Korea also uses shell companies to skirt rules.

After earlier U.N. sanctions were approved in August over missile tests this summer, John Delury of Seoul's Yonsei University told NPR's Elise Hu:</s>The ongoing war of words between the United States and North Korea saw several new fiery salvos Saturday, a day on which the US military, in a show of force, flew bombers in international airspace over waters east of North Korea.

The heated remarks also came on a day in which mysterious seismic activity in North Korea refueled concerns over the rogue nation’s nuclear ambitions.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, speaking before the United Nations, angrily responded to US President Donald Trump’s UN remarks in which he referred to Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man.”

Meanwhile, analysts said that seismic activity detected near the site of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear site might be aftershocks from a nuclear test earlier this month. Seismic activity is often the first indicator of a nuclear test, but the magnitudes Saturday were much smaller than anything declared as a nuclear test in previous years.

At the UN, Ri said that Trump had made a missile attack on the US mainland more inevitable by insulting the dignity of North Korea.

“None other than Trump himself is on a suicide mission,” Ri said in a speech at the UN General Assembly. “In case innocent lives of the US are harmed because of this suicide attack, Trump will be held totally responsible.”

The foreign minister also said the “dangerous reality (is) that the gambler who grew old using threats, frauds and all other schemes to acquire a patch of land holds the nuclear button. These are what constitute the gravest threat to the international peace and security today.”

Ri called Trump a “mentally deranged” person who used “reckless and violent words.”

There was no immediate response from the White House to Ri’s remarks, but there were military manuevers.

The Pentagon said Saturday that B-1B Lancer bombers from Guam and F-15C Eagle fighter escorts from Okinawa, Japan, flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea.

It’s the farthest north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that US fighters or bomber aircraft have ever flown this century, the Pentagon said.

The flight underscored “the seriousness with which we take DPRK’s reckless behavior,” the Pentagon said, using an acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“This mission is a demonstration of US resolve and a clear message that the President has many military options to defeat any threat,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.

“North Korea’s weapons program is a grave threat to the Asia-Pacific region and the entire international community. We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the US homeland and our allies.”

There has been name-calling and heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang this week as the UN met in New York.

In his speech Tuesday Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if the US was forced to defend itself or an ally. Trump tweeted Friday that Kim was “obviously a madman” who would be “tested like never before.”

“The Secretary-General expressed concern over the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and appealed for de-escalation and full implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions,” a statement from a UN spokesperson said. “The Secretary-General emphasized the need for a political solution.”

Throughout the week Washington and Pyongyang have had strong words for each other.

Earlier this week North Korea’s Ri said his country could test a powerful nuclear weapon over the Pacific Ocean in response to Trump’s threats of military action.

Those remarks came shortly after Kim Jong Un made an unprecedented televised statement, accusing Trump of being “mentally deranged.”

In a rare direct statement, Kim said that Trump would “pay dearly” for the threats, and that North Korea “will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.”

“I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue,” Kim said. “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.”

North Korea has been working on developing missiles that can reach the United States and its allies and pair them with a miniaturized nuclear warheads.

To comply with a UN Security Council resolution calling for sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear activity, China said Friday that it will limit its exports of refined petroleum products to Pyongyang as well as ban imports of the North’s textiles.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a written statement that it will restrict exports of refined petroleum products from October 1, and ban the export of condensate oil and liquefied natural gas immediately.

A ban on textile imports from the North will go into effect immediately, the statement said.

On Thursday, Trump announced new US sanctions to penalize any company or person doing business with North Korea by either cutting off their access to the US financial system or freezing their assets — or potentially both.

Scientists said they believe the seismic activity Saturday could have been caused by North Korea’s sixth test of a nuclear weapon on September 3.

Analysts were working to determine whether the tremors detected near the Punggye-ri nuclear site were natural or man-made.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, a watchdog group that works to end nuclear testing worldwide, said there were two seismic events, neither of very large magnitude.

The larger one had a 3.4 magnitude, the group’s initial assessment found.

“This geographical location is a non-seismically active zone. The September 3 event would’ve weakened the zone, which could still have further repercussions, such as radioisotopes coming through possible subsequent cracks which would allow scientists to assess what type of materials were used,” said Lassina Zerbo, the group’s executive secretary.

The Korea Meteorological Administration also cited the possibility that the seismic activity Saturday occurred because of the geological stress from the nuclear test.

The South Korean agency confirmed there were two earthquakes Saturday.

According to its website, the first quake — with a 2.6 magnitude occurred at 12:43 a.m. ET. A second one took place at 4:29 a.m. ET around the same area.

Park Jong-shin, an analyst for the agency, agreed the latest earthquakes might be aftershocks.

“It is assumed that the earthquakes occurred because of North Korea’s latest nuclear test,” Park said.

The US Geological Survey measured a magnitude 3.5 earthquake 22 kilometers (more than 13 miles) east-northeast of Sungjibaegam, North Korea. The depth at the epicenter was 5 kilometers (3.1 miles).

“We cannot conclusively confirm at this time the nature (natural or human-made) of the event,” the USGS said.</s>SEOUL, South Korea >> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lobbed a string of insults at President Donald Trump on Friday, calling him a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” and hinting at a frightening new weapon test.

It was the first time for a North Korean leader to issue such a direct statement against a U.S. president, dramatically escalating the war of words between the former wartime foes and raising the international nuclear standoff to a new level.

Trump responded by tweeting that Kim is “obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people.”

In a lengthy statement carried by state media, Kim said Trump would “pay dearly” for his recent threat to destroy North Korea. He also called Trump “deranged” and “a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire.”

Kim said his country will consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history,” a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon, but didn’t elaborate.

His foreign minister, asked on a visit to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly what the countermeasure would be, said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.

“I think it could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific,” Ri Yong Ho said, according to South Korean TV. “We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong Un.”

Kim’s statement was unusual because it was written in the first person. North Korean state TV later showed a solemn-looking Kim, dressed in a gray Mao-style suit, reading the statement. South Korea’s government said it was the first direct address to the world by any North Korean leader.

Some analysts saw a clear sign that North Korea will ramp up its already brisk pace of weapons testing, which has included missiles meant to target U.S. forces throughout Asia and on the U.S. mainland.

An H-bomb test in the Pacific, if realized, would be considered a major provocation by Washington and its allies. North Korea has conducted six nuclear test explosions since 2006, all at its northeastern underground test site.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera noted a Pacific test could mean a nuclear-armed missile flying over Japan. He said North Korea might conduct an H-bomb test with a medium-range or intercontinental ballistic missile, given its recent advances in missile and nuclear weapons development.

“We cannot deny the possibility it may fly over our country,” he said.

Vipin Narang, a nuclear strategy expert at MIT, said such a test could pose a danger to shipping and aircraft, even if North Korea declares a keep-out zone.

“And if the test doesn’t go according to plan, you could have population at risk, too,” he said. “We are talking about putting a live nuclear warhead on a missile that has been tested only a handful of times. It is truly terrifying if something goes wrong.”

North Korea was slapped with new, stiffer sanctions by the United Nations after its sixth and most power nuclear test on Sept. 3. In recent months, it has also launched a pair of still-developmental ICBMs it said were capable of striking the continental United States and two intermediate-range missiles that soared over Japanese territory.

North Korea says it needs to have a nuclear deterrent because the United States intends to invade it. Analysts say the North is likely to soon achieve its objective of possessing nuclear missiles capable of reaching any part of the U.S. homeland.

Kim’s statement was in response to Trump’s combative speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday in which he mocked Kim as “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission” and said that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

Kim said Trump’s remarks “have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last.” He also said he would “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

Hours before Kim’s statement, Trump announced stiffer new sanctions on North Korea as he met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in New York.

“North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world and it is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal, rogue regime,” Trump said as he joined South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for lunch.

Trump’s executive order expanded the Treasury Department’s ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea, and to ban them from interacting with the U.S. financial system.

Trump also praised China for what he called an instruction to its banks to cut off business with North Korea. But a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Trump’s announcement was “not consistent with the facts,” though he gave no indication what steps China might be taking.

“In principle, China has always implemented the U.N. Security Council’s resolutions in their entirety and fulfilled our due responsibility,” Lu Kang, the Chinese spokesman, told a regular briefing.

China, North Korea’s largest trading partner and last major diplomatic ally, has cut off imports of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods from North Korea in line with U.N. sanctions.

The South Korean government, which has sought a dialogue with North Korea, called Kim’s statement a “reckless provocation” that would deepen the North’s international isolation and lead to its demise.

Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington at the United Nations and Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.</s>BEIJING (Reuters) - China has used diplomatic channels to warn North Korea against conducting a fourth nuclear test, multiple China-based diplomatic sources told Reuters, after the reclusive state renewed its threat of “counter-measures” against perceived U.S. hostility.

North Korea, which regularly threatens the South and the United States with destruction, is already under heavy sanctions imposed by several U.N. resolutions beginning in 2006 but has defied pressure to abandon its missile and nuclear programs.

It last conducted a nuclear test in February 2013.

“China has told North Korea that there is no justification for a new nuclear test and that they should not do it,” said a Western diplomat who was briefed by Chinese officials.

The sources said China had used diplomatic channels in Beijing and Pyongyang to convey its anxiety about the possibility of a fourth test to the North.

China is North Korea’s most important diplomatic and economic ally, though three nuclear tests and several rounds of saber rattling have tested Beijing’s support.

But China had not threatened the North with explicit consequences, the sources said, and its message to the North had remained consistent.

“They are against another nuclear test - but it is a mistake to believe that China is getting more severe,” said a second diplomatic source, adding that China had raised the issue with a special envoy appointed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The United States has said it hopes China will use its influence to coax the North to abandon its banned nuclear weapons program. In recent public statements, Chinese foreign ministry officials have repeatedly called on all parties to “exercise restraint” on the Korean peninsula, without pointing the finger at North Korea alone.

China signed on to tougher U.N. sanctions last year after the third nuclear test, but has come under criticism from western countries and independent experts for failing to properly implement them.

China’s stability-obsessed government fears the continuing development of North Korea’s nuclear program will unsettle the region. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in March that denuclearization on the peninsula was the only road to peace, and that China would not permit war or instability on its doorstep.

North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said this month the country was justified in using all available means at its disposal to counter aggressive challenges by the United States and South Korea aimed at stifling its sovereignty.

Zhang Liangui, a North Korea expert at China’s Central Party School, said it was likely China would support another round of sanctions on the North if it went ahead with another test.

”It’s very possible that China would support even tougher sanctions on North Korea,“ he said. ”I think China should also think about adjusting the aid it provides.</s>BEIJING: A shallow 3.5-magnitude earthquake which hit North Korea near the country's nuclear test site on Saturday was not the result of a fresh nuclear test, China 's seismic service said, after initially reporting a "suspected explosion".The China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) said in a statement late Saturday that study of infrasonic data determined "the incident is not a nuclear explosion, but had the nature of a natural earthquake".The Chinese Academy of Sciences also released a report saying the earthquake was likely a "lagged collapse earthquake", echoing international experts' hypotheses that the earthquake was a delayed repercussion of a previous detonation.The North's last nuclear test, on September 3, was the country's most powerful, triggering a much stronger 6.3-magnitude quake that was felt across the border in China.Monitoring groups estimate the nuclear test had a yield of 250 kilotons, which is 16 times the size of the US bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.The test prompted global condemnation, leading the United Nations Security Council to unanimously adopt new sanctions that include restrictions on oil shipments.The strength of the quake on Saturday was much lower than the tremors registered during any of North Korea's previous nuclear tests, including its first detonation in 2006, which triggered a 4.1-magnitude quake.It came at the end of a week that saw a blistering war of words between between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, with Trump using his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly to warn that Washington would "totally destroy" the North if America or its allies were threatened.North Korea, which says it needs nuclear weapons to protect itself against the threat of a US invasion, responded on Friday with a rare personal rebuke from Kim, who called Trump "mentally deranged" and threatened the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history".Washington announced tougher restrictions Friday aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programme, building on tough new UN sanctions aimed at choking Pyongyang of cash.Russia and China have both appealed for an end to the escalating rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang.</s>North Korea has threatened to test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific, the latest in an escalating tit-for-tat between leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump.

If Pyongyang makes good on the threat, it would mean marrying the two most powerful weapons known to man: a fusion-type nuclear weapon and a ballistic missile.

"This could probably mean the strongest hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean," North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters in New York on Thursday, adding: "Regarding which measures to take, I don't really know since it is what Kim Jong Un does."

The warning came days after Trump, in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, derisively called Kim "Rocket Man" and said it might be necessary to "completely destroy" North Korea.

The president's bellicose rhetoric was in turn answered by Kim in a rare personal statement broadcast on state television. Kim described Trump as "a madman" and "a frightened dog" and "a mentally deranged U.S. dotard."

"I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying [North Korea]," Kim said.

On Friday, Trump, apparently responding to the threat, tweeted:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday appeared to try to soften the rhetoric somewhat. Appearing on ABC News, he emphasized the administration's diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions aimed at taming Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

"The president obviously takes very seriously the security of the American people. But we are not in this alone. We have strong allies and strong alliances internationally. And, we are engaging with North Korea's most important supporters, economic supporters — their friends, China and Russia to have them engage with Kim Jong Un on this issue," Tillerson said.

Following Trump's U.N. speech, China's English-language edition of the state-run People's Daily in an editorial called the president's remarks "political chest-thumping [that] is unhelpful."

"It will only push [North Korea] to pursue even riskier policies, because the survival of the regime is at stake."

Pressed on what the administration's response would be if North Korea went ahead with the threatened new test of a hydrogen bomb, the secretary of state said "all of our military options" are "on the table."

"Once we can assess the nature of this threat, the president will make a decision regarding the appropriate actions," Tillerson said, adding that Trump would receive advice from the National Security Council and others but that, "Ultimately, it will be his decision."

In an executive order issued Thursday, the Treasury Department has been granted expanded latitude to target anyone trading with North Korea, barring them from using the U.S. banking system.

The latest threats of a bomb-and-missile test coming out of Pyongyang, as NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reported earlier this month, raises the specter of not seen since the height of the Cold War. In a one-and-only such test in 1962, the U.S. launched a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile from a submerged submarine.
China limits petroleum exports and bans imports of textiles from North Korea as part of new sanctions following the latest nuclear test.