South Korea, China urge Trump to solve Korean issue diplomatically

China and South Korea have called on U.S. President Donald Trump to back up the statement of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for a diplomatic solution to the Korean Peninsula crisis.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a televised speech on Tuesday that U.S. military action on the Korean Peninsula may not be taken without Seoul's consent, and the crisis should "absolutely" be solved peacefully.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that China hopes to see concrete policies by the U.S. side towards the DPRK that reflect the views of the two U.S. senior officials.

"We also call on the DPRK to respond to these remarks," she said.

Hua made the remarks in response to an opinion piece by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that Washington has "no interest" in regime change in Pyongyang nor in accelerated reunification of the Korean Peninsula, and that "diplomacy is our preferred means" of changing the DPRK's course of action.

Hua said China has always believed that the security issue is the crux of Korean Peninsula denuclearization, and that "the key is in the hands of the United States and the DPRK."

She said China hopes that all parties concerned will accept China's "suspension for suspension" proposal which requires the DPRK to suspend its missile and nuclear activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale military drills between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK).

"We hope the two sides can work together and create conditions to restart dialogue," Xinhua quoted Hua as saying.

Tensions escalated on the peninsula after the DPRK twice test-fired what it called an intercontinental ballistic missile last month.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang that if it continued to threaten the United States, it would be met with "fire and fury."

In response, the DPRK warned of the launch of intermediate-range ballistic missiles targeting the waters off the U.S. island of Guam in the Pacific.