Donald Trump to ask China to cut financial links with North Korea after trip to South Korea

President to press regional superpower to put further strain on rogue Pyongyang

Ahead of his arrival in Beijing, Mr Trump made denuclearisation a prerequisite of any deal with North Korea (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump will ask China to cut its financial links with North Korea and to abide by UN sanctions when meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, a senior White House official said on Wednesday.

Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon from South Korea for a two-night stop in the Chinese capital as part of his five-country tour of Asia.

The US president was undecided on whether to declare North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism by the end of his trip, the official said, speaking to reporters on board Air Force One.

Mr Trump believes any talks with the North would require reducing threats, ending provocations and moves toward denuclearisation without which no deal can be achieved, the official added.

Mr Trump had previously handed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a stark warning, telling him that the nuclear weapons he is developing “are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger.”

Trump used some of his toughest language yet against North Korea in a wide-ranging address in Seoul earlier this week that lodged specific accusations of chilling human rights abuses against Pyongyang. He called on countries around the world to isolate Pyongyang by denying it “any form of support, supply or acceptance.”

“Do not underestimate us and do not try us,” Trump told North Korea as he wrapped up a visit to South Korea with a speech to the National Assembly in Seoul before heading to Beijing, where he was making his first official visit.

Trump painted a dystopian picture of the reclusive North, saying people were suffering in “gulags” and some bribed government officials to work as “slaves” overseas rather than live under the government at home. He offered no evidence to support those accusations.

Trump’s return to harsh, uncompromising language against North Korea came a day after he appeared to dial back the bellicose rhetoric that had fuelled fears across east Asia of the risk of military conflict. On Tuesday, Trump had even offered a diplomatic opening to Pyongyang to “make a deal.”

He went mostly on the attack in Wednesday's speech but did promise a “path to a much better future” for North Korea if it stopped developing ballistic missiles and agreed to “complete, verifiable and total denuclearisation” – something Pyongyang has vowed never to do.

“We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. We will not be intimidated,” he told South Korean lawmakers. “And we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground we fought and died to secure.”

“The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens it with nuclear devastation,” Trump said, speaking as three US aircraft carrier groups sailed to the Western Pacific for exercises in a rare show of such US naval force in the region.

Reuters