President Donald Trump has dismissed a Chinese diplomatic effort to rein in North Korea's weapons program as a failure, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urges Beijing to do more to limit oil supplies to Pyongyang.
In a tweet on Thursday, Trump delivered another insulting barb against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who he'd already needled after North Korea test fired its most advanced missile to date on Wednesday.
"The Chinese envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man," Trump said on Twitter, a day after speaking with Chinese President Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Separately on Thursday, Tillerson welcomed Chinese efforts on North Korea, but said Beijing could do more to limit its oil exports to the country.
While Trump has been bellicose at times in rhetoric towards North Korea, Tillerson has persistently held out hopes for a return to dialogue if North Korea shows it is willing to give up its nuclear weapons program.
Trump has pledged more sanctions in response to the latest test and at an emergency UN Security Council meeting.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed to joint US-South Korean military exercises planned for December and accused the United States of trying to provoke Kim into "flying off the handle" over his missile program to hand Washington a pretext to destroy his country.
He also flatly rejected a US call to cut ties with Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile program, calling US policy towards North Korea deeply flawed.
In a call with Trump on Thursday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the missile launched this week was North Korea's most advanced so far, but it was unclear whether Pyongyang had the technology to miniaturise a nuclear warhead and it still needed to prove other things, such as its re-entry technology.
