North Korean leader Kim Jung Un. REUTERS/KCNA North Korea did not respond this month to requests from senior Chinese diplomats, including the country's foreign minister, to meet North Korean counterparts, amid rising tension with the US, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Citing unidentified sources, the report said China's special envoy for the North Korea nuclear issue, Wu Dawei, was the other official whose requests for meetings went unanswered.

China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Last week, the ministry twice said it had no information to provide on whether Wu would be going to North Korea.

Tension has risen as US President Donald Trump takes a hard rhetorical line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from China and pursued nuclear and missile programs that Washington sees as a direct threat.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)