“Taking out this outrage on China is clearly finding the wrong target,” it said, warning that such broadsides could be dangerous.

“What the peninsula needs is immediately stamping out the fire, not adding kindling or, even worse, pouring oil on the flames,” Xinhua said. The tensions could, it said, “evolve into a localized conflict, or even the outbreak of war, with unthinkable repercussions.”

Chinese diplomats and the state news media have consistently argued that Washington and its allies should not rely so much on China to defuse tensions created by North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons and missile capabilities. On Friday, North Korea tested a ballistic missile that experts have said could have the range to hit California.

Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has turned up pressure on China to help isolate and cajole North Korea. “China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for this growing threat to regional and global stability,” he said in a statement after the launch.

In addition, the Pentagon will conduct a test of its intercontinental ballistic missile system on Wednesday, defense officials said, a move that is bound to raise questions about the Trump administration’s intentions.

Defense officials had scheduled the missile tests months ago, but the timing of the test is nonetheless expected to be noted in Pyongyang and Beijing. It is planned a day after Mr. Tillerson said the United States was not seeking regime change in North Korea and would be willing to talk to Pyongyang.

“We do not seek a collapse of the regime, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th Parallel,” Mr. Tillerson told reporters at the State Department.