Biden says unclear if China can stop another North Korea nuclear test

Joe Biden has said he told Xi Jinping that China has an obligation to try to talk North Korea out of conducting a seventh nuclear test, although the US president said it was unclear whether Beijing had the ability to do so.

Biden met Xi for more than three hours on Monday, ahead of the G20 summit in Bali, their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took power. At a press conference after the meeting, Biden said he told Xi “that I thought they had an obligation to attempt to make it clear” to North Korea that it should not go ahead with a test.

South Korea has said the North has finished all technical preparations for a new test, and Washington has warned for months that a test could take place soon.

Asked to what extent he believed China had the ability to talk Pyongyang out of conducting a test, Biden said he was not certain whether China “can control” its neighbour and longtime ally.

“It’s difficult to determine whether or not China has the capacity,” Biden said. “I’m confident China’s not looking for North Korea to engage in further escalatory means,” he added.

US-led international sanctions have failed to halt North Korea’s growing weapons programs. Its record-breaking regime of weapons tests this year have included intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the US mainland.

China, along with Russia, backed toughened United Nations sanctions after North Korea’s last nuclear test in 2017. But in May both countries vetoed a US-led push for more UN penalties over its renewed ballistic missile launches.

US officials have accused China and Russia of enabling Pyongyang’s missile and bomb programs by failing to properly enforce UN security council sanctions.

Biden also told Xi that the US would respond to a nuclear test by the North, and would defend its allies in the region, which include South Korea and Japan, he said.

Earlier this month, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said any nuclear attack on the US or its allies by North Korea would “result in the end of the Kim [Jong-un] regime”.

Similar language was included in the US National Defense Strategy, which was released in October.

Photograph: Han Sang-kyun/AP South Korean soldiers stand in front of the debris of a North Korean missile recovered from the sea this month. Joe Biden has China should advise Kim Jong-un’s regime against a nuclear test.