President , in unprecedented fashion, has been able to get the Chinese government to turn the screws on North Korea in hopes of getting to halt military provocations, according to a former diplomat who has advised Republican and Democratic presidents.

"The Chinese have done more under President Trump's prodding than any other American president. They signed on to the UN sanctions. There are now individual Chinese sanctions; the central bank governors instructed banks in China to wind up loans to North Korea," Nicholas Burns told CNBC on Friday. He appeared on a week before Trump embarks on a trip to Asia, which includes stops in China and South Korea.

"The Chinese are clearly frustrated with the North Koreans. The Chinese don't want a war on the Korean Peninsula. They want trade," said Burns, who served as U.S. ambassador to NATO and was the State Department's third-ranking official during George W. Bush's presidency. He also advised the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Chinese President , who was just given a major governing mandate, will be "eager to cooperate" with Trump, said Burns, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. "The president [Trump] has obviously gone slow on any kind of major [trade] sanctions against China because he's prioritizing the North Korean issue. The Chinese understand that."