US diplomat Rex Tillerson presses for Chinese-US co-operation over North Korea

Tillerson, a former Exxon oil executive who until now had adopted a low profile in office, was to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday afternoon.

Beijing’s ban on sales of tour packages to South Korea that went into effect on Wednesday is seen as the latest in a string of retaliatory actions.

“The State Department says that an important part of Tillerson’s agenda here will be to push Beijing to push North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs”.

Moon, a liberal facing little in the way of a significant conservative challenger, said in a debate this week China should stop the economic retaliation and South Korea had to make diplomatic efforts to assuage Chinese anger.

Tillerson will conclude his visit on Sunday with a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Tillerson also visited Camp Bonifas, a United States base about 400 metres from the heavily fortified DMZ, meeting some of the 28,500 USA troops stationed in South Korea.

During his trip to Korea, Tillerson declared that diplomatic and other efforts to stop North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme over the past 20 years had failed, so the Trump administration would try a tougher approach, without giving details.

Tillerson also said that any talks on North Korea could only take place after it began the process of unwinding the weapons programmes.

Beijing, however, has been irked by calls that it isn’t doing enough to lessen tensions in the region.

Mr Wang warned last week that North Korea on one side, and the US and South Korea on the other, were like “two accelerating trains” heading towards each other, with neither side willing to give way. China embracing global economy, trying to become in a way a global economy leader. And North Korea has threatened to be “merciless” with its “treasured nuclear sword of justice” if it is threatened.

Washington and Seoul insist it is purely a defence against a possible North Korean attack.

In his comments in Seoul, Tillerson laid out details of the USA approach, saying it would focus on getting China to better enforce United Nations sanctions against North Korea. “It’s all up to Washington now”, it said.

Talks between the top diplomats of the United States and China on Saturday underscored a marked difference in their approaches toward North Korea, despite their shared concerns and promise of cooperation regarding its ever-growing threats.

Despite fiery rhetoric on the campaign trail and prior to his inauguration, Trump and his administration have taken a relatively hands off approach to China so far.

Tillerson visits South Korea and China later in the week.

China’s hardline policy of treating North Korean defectors as illegal aliens and sending them back had eased considerably since 2014, when Seoul-Beijing relations were at their peak.

Tillerson touched down by helicopter Friday at Camp Bonifas, a US base about 400 meters (438 yards) from the Demilitarized Zone, a Cold War vestige created after the Korean War ended in 1953.

During his confirmation hearings in January, Tillerson compared China’s island-building and deployment of military assets to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and suggesting China’s access to the island should not be allowed.