A POTENTIAL North Korea strike from Donald Trump has China “very worried” leading to the rogue state’s only ally in the region to push for a diplomatic solution to end Kim Jong-un’s nuclear ambitions.
North Korea has been internationally condemned for pushing ahead with nuclear weapons testing despite swathes of US-backed sanctions being implemented on the hermit nation.
Despot leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump became entangled in a vicious war of words, threatening to destroy one another with their own nuclear arsenals, sparking fears of World War 3.
Mr Trump used his five-country tour of Asia to encourage leaders in the region to join him in pressuring North Korea into completely ditching its nuclear projects.
China, normally a close economic ally of North Korea, agreed to send an envoy to the hermit nation to encourage Kim Jong-un to end his nuclear ambitions.
While Mr Trump claimed this fresh diplomatic move was born from his successful negotiations, a security expert has said it is because China is “very worried” that the US President may actually start a war in the region.
Fred Fleitz, vice president at the Center for Security Policy, told Fox: “This is a significant development and I think it stems from the President’s successful trip to Asia.
“But, we have to put this into perspective. North Korea and China have exchanged envoys like this on many occasions since 2013. On some occasions, both countries refused to accept an envoy from the other. North Korea sent an envoy to China in 2016 but nothing has happened.
“What is different here is that I think we have a president in the US that both nations believe possibly use force if necessary, and I think China is very worried about the possibility of war in the Korean peninsula and a possible nuclear accident if North Korea continues to test these enormous nuclear devices underground.”
Another expert has warned China’s North Korea envoy is unlikely to attempt to strong arm Pyongyang over its nuclear plans.
Tong Zhao, a fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, suggested the visit will be China informing the North Korean Workers’ Party of the outcome of China’s 19th Communist Party Congress in October.
He said: “It has become a sort of routine for the Chinese Communist Party to send a special envoy to its fellow communist and socialist countries to brief them on China’s Party congress.
“China did so after the conclusion of the 2007 and 2012 party congresses, so this is not really unusual.”
Mr Zhao, however, said it is “very likely” Kim Jong-un’s nuclear ambitions will come up in conversation.