President Barack Obama and China's President Hu Jintao spoke about the continuing crisis on the Korean peninsula, with the Chinese leader calling for calm and Mr. Obama urging Beijing to rein in its neighbor and ally.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also stepped up diplomatic efforts Monday, saying after a meeting in Washington with her South Korean and Japanese counterparts that talks with North Korea won't resume until it ceases "its provocative behavior."
The meeting was held after the U.S. rejected a Chinese proposal for broader talks, including China, Russia and North Korea, in Beijing.
The three ministers called on China to play a greater role in the six-party talks and to step up pressure on North Korea. Mrs. Clinton said the U.S. and its allies have been in close contact with China on the crisis.
"We would hope that China would work with us to send a clear, unmistakable message to North Korea that they have to demonstrate a seriousness of purpose in ending their provocative actions, and there are many ways that they can do that," Mrs. Clinton said.
Of the three, South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan was the most forceful, arguing that Beijing must tell Pyongyang to cease the attacks against the South.
"We would like China to have a more clear stance in giving warning to North Korea and to contain these provocative actions by North Korea," he said.
The White House said Monday that Messrs. Obama and Hu spoke by telephone Sunday night in their first direct communication since North Korea revealed significant progress in its uranium-enrichment program and then shelled a South Korean island, killing four people, on Nov. 23.
The U.S. responded to the artillery raid by sending an aircraft carrier to take part in joint military exercises with South Korea in the Yellow Sea last week, prompting protests from both North Korea and China.
By scheduling the conversation between Messrs. Obama and Hu for the day before Monday's talks, both sides appeared to be trying to prevent the crisis from escalating further into a standoff between China and North Korea on one side, and the U.S. and its Asian allies on the other. The phone call gave Mr. Obama a chance to be seen putting pressure on China, while also reassuring Beijing that it remains a dialogue partner for the U.S. in the crisis. The White House said Mr. Obama urged China to work with the U.S. and others to put pressure on North Korea.
China is particularly anxious to ensure the Korean crisis doesn't overshadow a plannedU.S. visit by President Hu in January—less than two years before he is due to retire as Communist Party chief. China-U.S. relations have already been strained this year by public disputes over issues including the value of the Chinese currency, China's territorial claims in the South and East China seas, and vocal U.S. support for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
President Obama condemned North Korea's artillery raid and its pursuit of a uranium-enrichment program and emphasized the need for Pyongyang to "halt its provocative behavior," a statement from the White House said.
China has so far declined to blame the artillery raid on North Korea , which it supported during the 1950-53 Korean War by sending three million "volunteers' to fight against the South.Chinaand continues to prop up the North with economic aid, fearing a collapse of the regime there would send millions of refugees into northeastern China, and bring the roughly 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea right up to the Chinese border.
But China's leaders are facing mounting criticism at home and abroad over their reluctance to use their political and economic influence to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons or launching conventional attacks against the South.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said Monday that Mr. Hu told Mr. Obama that China was "deeply worried" about the situation in the Koreas. "Especially with the present situation, iIf not dealt with properly, tensions could well rise on the Korean peninsula or spin out of control, which would not be in anyone's interest," Mr. Hu said, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement. "The most pressing task at present is to calmly deal with the situation," he added, according to the statement on the ministry's website.
Chinese analysts said Beijing was disappointed last week by the cool response to its own proposal for talks and that it feared Monday's meeting would lead to stronger defense ties between the U.S., Japan and South Korea.
"China feels very frustrated, and cares a lot about what these three countries will say about Korea and Asia-Pacific security issues," said Chu Shulong, an international relations professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
"It also hopes President Hu's visit in January will be a turning point, as relations with the U.S. have not been so good this year. This phone call is He said the Obama-Hu phone call was "important for stabilizing the bilateral dialogue. It gives China lots of face."
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday Washington is working with China and other partners to avoid another flare-up with Pyongyang. "Nobody wants a war on the Korean peninsula," he said.
The Pentagon said Monday Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will travel to Seoul for consultations with top South Korean defense leaders. The visit is intended to be a show of U.S. resolve, though military leaders are also looking for ways to help shore up South Korean defenses without provoking action from the North.
In South Korea, some media reports said that the military began live-fire tests of artillery around the nation, in line with an announcement last week.
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