World facing HEAD-ON COLLISION: China urges US to talk to North Korea over missile tests
CHINA is urging the United States Government to re-open talks with North Korea in a bid to de-escalate rising tensions over missile tests.
The move by Beijing comes after the pariah state tested four missiles on Monday - stoking international condemnation.
President Xi Jinping's main hope is that Donald Trump's administration will create a new way of dealing with Pyongyang to alleviate the problem.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said if North Korea co-operates, in exchange, the US and South Korea could halt annual joint military drills, which upsets the North.
China's last suggestion was turned down by the Obama administration but there is renewed hope Trump will listen.
Mr Wang said the current Korean peninsula was like "two accelerating trains, coming toward each other with neither side willing to give way".
He said: "Talks deserve another chance and peace is still within our grasp.
"Are the two sides really ready for a head-on collision?”
China is making its pitch to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ahead of his visit to Japan, South Korea and China this month.
Beijing is deeply worried about the deployment of a US missile defence system rolled out in South Korea in response to the tests. It believes it could be used to spy on its use of nuclear missiles.
However, US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner appeared to strike down China's idea saying that it was not workable.
He told the BBC: "This is apples and oranges. What we're doing in terms of our defence co-operation with South Korea is in no way comparable to the blatant disregard that North Korea has shown with respect to international law."
North Korea's chilling broadcast believed to be orders to spies
Three of the North Korean missiles came down inside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
This action prompted Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump to say the region had entered "a new stage of threat".
The last time a joint training drill was stopped was in 1992 under President George W. Bush. It was in response to North Korea's pledge to clean up its nuclear safeguards and to accept international inspections. That deal collapsed in 1993.
And, admittedly, the latest round of proposals on the North Korean regime come during a turbulent time following the assassination of the half-brother of the country's leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia.
Chinese officials will continue to press the US to get involved to slap down North Korea, as it still cannot shake the fear that any tensions between the US and North Korea could blow back on it, resulting in military escalation or more diplomatic pressure.
It is also trying to avoid criticism for not intervening further in the region.