Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says Korean peninsula tensions have grown to “dangerous levels.”

China and the United States on Saturday agreed to jointly address the threats posed by North Korea’s provocative nuclear and missile programmes as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that tensions in the region have spiked to “dangerous levels.”

“We noted the efforts made in the last 20 years has not succeeded in curbing the threats posed by North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons programmes,” Mr. Tillerson, who is on his first official visit to China, said after talks with his Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi here.

During his visit to South Korea on Friday, Mr. Tillerson had cautioned North Korea that all options were on the table to deal with Pyongyang’s provocative actions.

Trump’s tweet

U.S. President Donald Trump had also put out a tweet criticising Beijing’s role in dealing with North Korea.

“North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been ‘playing’ the United States for years. China has done little to help,” Mr. Trump’s tweet said.

Both Mr. Tillerson and Mr. Wang avoided direct response to Mr. Trump’s tweet.

“We renewed our determination to work together to convince the North Korean government to choose a better path and different future for its people,” Mr. Tillerson said. He said Mr. Wang has agreed to work together with the U.S. to see whether “we can bring the government in Pyongyang to a place where they want to make difference and a make course correction and move away from their development of nuclear weapons.” He said the common view was that tensions in the Korean peninsula were “very high.”

Thus far and no further

Mr. Tillerson affirmed China and the U.S.’ commitment to prevent further escalation of tension in the region.

He said issues related to the disputed South China Sea where Trump administration has criticised Beijing’s island building were also discussed.

“I discussed the importance of rule-based order with freedom of navigation and over flights and made clear that the U.S. will continue to advocate for universal values human rights and religious freedom,” he said.

After his talks with Mr. Wang, Mr. Tillerson met Chinese top diplomat State Councillor Yang Jiechi whose rank is higher than that of Foreign Minister

Mr. Tillerson is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday.

Though his visit is overshadowed by the North Korean crisis, Mr. Tillerson and Mr. Wang discussed a broad agenda and arrangements for the first summit meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi due to be held in Florida next month.

Need to be diplomatic: Wang

Mr. Wang, who earlier this month has proposed a double suspension formula suggesting the U.S. and South Korea to tone down the military exercises and North Korea to halt the development of nuclear weapons programme said legitimate concerns of all parties should be addressed in “synchronised fashion.”

“The most important principle we have identified is that no matter what happens we have to stay committed to diplomatic means as a way to seek peaceful settlement,” he said.

Stating that the main problem in the Korean peninsula is the conflict between the U.S. and North Korea, he said right now the situation on the peninsula has arrived at “new crossroads.”

“We could either let the situation to continue to escalate and aggravate, which could finally lead to confrontation or we could continue to implement the security council’s resolutions that seek a breakthrough point to start the dialogue come back to the right track of negotiated settlement,” he said.

All parties, including the U.S., should view the situation in a cool-headed and compressive fashion and arrive at a wise decision, Mr. Wang said.