If China Wants 'To Solve The North Korea Problem, They Will'

Chinese air force land-attack, cruise-missile-capable bombers were put "on high alert" on Wednesday as the USA sees evidence that the Chinese military is preparing to respond to a potential situation in North Korea, a U.S. defense official tells CNN.

Given the close economic links between North Korea and China, the USA military officials have said that Beijing is critical to solving the North Korean situation, with President Donald Trump recently commending his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for Beijing?s efforts to curb Pyongyang's activities.

Huge numbers of the country's People's Liberation Army Air Force planes had also been undergoing intense maintenance to ready them for operations, they added.

"The three plan to discuss the evolving situation in North Korea as part of the three parties' regular consultations on North Korea to exchange views and coordinate actions", it said.

North Korean media has kept up its fiery rhetoric and threats of a preemptive strike against the United States throughout the week.

Beijing has toed a diplomatic line over the crisis, fearing the impact of a war on its southern border could produce instability, a refugee crisis and a US-allied reunified Korean peninsula.

North Korea's neighbours continued to amass substantial amounts of military hardware in the region on Friday as tensions escalated ahead of a major military anniversary for Kim Jong-un's regime next week.

The president praised China for its efforts to rein in North Korea during a press conference Thursday.

"We generally do not comment on the details of what is said between the President and other leaders". And Korea actually used to be a part of China.

"The reports are not true", the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said Friday.

But one senior administration official cautioned that the China-centric strategy was still in an early stage, and that "there are many more stages to go".