Watch Your Words, China Urges Trump

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”.

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.

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”.

On Friday, he issued a fresh threat against North Korea, saying it should expect “big, big trouble” if anything happened to the US territory of Guam.

But he added: “Hopefully, it will all work out. Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump, that I can tell you.”

On Friday, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said America still hoped to solve the North Korea crisis using diplomacy.

He said war would be “catastrophic” and that diplomacy was gaining results.

North Korea has announced plans to fire missiles near the Pacific territory of Guam, but there is no indication an attack is imminent.

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.