China will intervene and stop America if it attacks North Korea first and will only stay neutral if Kim Jong-un attacks the US first.

Via its state-owned media, Beijing cautioned the US president that it would intervene (militarily) on behalf of North Korea if the US and South Korea launch a preemptive strike to “overthrow the North Korean regime”

The state-run newspaper Global Times said :”If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so”

RT reports:

The warning, delivered through an editorial in the Chinese state-run newspaper on Thursday, comes as both the US and North Korea continue to exchange incendiary remarks, raising the risk of overreaction or miscalculation amid the crisis.

Beijing should make it clear that “if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral,” the Global Times wrote.

But if the US and its ally South Korea take on Pyongyang and try to “overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so,” the paper stressed.

The widely-quoted newspaper, published by the Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, also noted that the latest developments are seen in Beijing with growing frustration and deep concern.

“If war really breaks out, the US can hardly reap any strategic harvest and North Korea will face unprecedented risks,” the paper cautioned. “North Korea aims to propel the US to negotiate with it, while the US wants to put North Korea in check.”

Beijing was unable “to persuade Washington or Pyongyang to back down at this time,” the Global Times said, adding it primarily pursues peace and stability in the region. All sides involved in the crisis should understand that “when their actions jeopardize China’s interests, China will respond with a firm hand,” the government paper explained.

China – North Korea’s long-standing economic partner and ideological ally – reiterated on Friday that all sides involved in the crisis must “speak and act with caution” as well as build up trust rather than “taking turns in shows of strength,” according to a Foreign Ministry statement quoted by Reuters.

Earlier in the week, US President Donald Trump added more fuel to the North Korean crisis, saying that his previous threat to unleash “fire and fury which the world has never seen” was perhaps not “tough enough.”

Speaking on Thursday at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump said the North Koreans “better get their act together or they’re going to be in trouble like few nations ever have been in trouble in this world.” The open threat from Washington came after Pyongyang ridiculed Trump’s “fire and fury” remark as a “load of nonsense.”

Pyongyang also announced that a detailed plan to launch missiles against the US Pacific airbase on Guam will be completed soon. In response, the US military signaled it could dispatch strategic B-1 bombers to target North Korea’s missile launch sites, underground facilities and other installations.

Such a “reckless game” may result in dire consequences, the Global Times said. “Neither Washington nor Pyongyang really wants war, but a war could break out anyway as they do not have the experience of putting such an extreme game under control.”