US President Donald Trump would discuss with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping the security challenge posed by North Korea following Pyongyang's biggest nuclear weapons test, the White House said.
On Sunday, North Korea said it detonated a hydrogen bomb designed for a long-range missile and called its sixth and most powerful nuclear test a "perfect success", sparking world condemnation and promises of tougher US sanctions.
Trump's call to Xi is part of his efforts to reach out to global leaders on the issue of North Korean threat.
This would be the first phone call between the two leaders after North Korea carried out another nuclear test a few days ago and has threatened to equip its ballistic missile with nuclear weapons.
"In the morning, President Donald Trump will speak with President Xi Jinping of China," the White House said.
Over the past few days, he has spoken multiple times with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
He also spoke over phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South Korea President Moon Jae-In.
Meanwhile, South Korean Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun told a Washington audience that North Korea is rapidly becoming a threat too hard to bear.
"First, we should not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state. The second thing we can not accept, in any case, is a war on the Korean peninsula," Cho said at a luncheon organised at a think-tank.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Congressman Stephanie Murphy, said North Korea's nuclear test are a profoundly dangerous, defiant, and destabilising event.
"As expected, the test has generated verbal condemnation from the international community, including China and Russia.
But it is too early to say whether these strong words will be followed by strong actions and, if so, what those actions will entail—and whether they will make any difference in altering North Korea's strategic calculus," he said. (PTI)
