There can be no winners in an armed conflict between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said April 14, offering China's support for dialogue between the two sides.
Wang's comments come after President Donald Trump said the North Korea problem "will be taken care of," as speculation mounts that the reclusive communist state could be preparing another nuclear or missile test.
"Lately, tensions have risen...and one has the feeling that a conflict could break out at any moment," Wang said. "If a war occurs, the result is a situation in which everybody loses and there can be no winner."
Whichever side provoked a conflict "must assume the historic responsibility and pay the corresponding price," he said in a joint press conference with his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault.
Trump has sent an aircraft carrier-led strike group to the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. military on April 13 dropped one of the most powerful nonnuclear bombs it possesses on Afghanistan, targeting a complex used by the Islamic State group.
Trump also flexed U.S. military muscle last week by ordering cruise-missile strikes on a Syrian air base the United States believed was the origin of a chemical weapons attack on civilians in a northern Syrian town.
China is North Korea's sole important ally, and any potential conflict on the Korean Peninsula is likely to draw in Bejing, which has repeatedly expressed concerns about a wave of refugees and the possible presence of U.S. and South Korean troops on its border.