China’s foreign minister Wang Yi accused the US of making a direct attack on the relationship between the world’s two biggest economies as secretary of state Mike Pompeo arrived in Beijing for a visit he hoped would focus more on progress on North Korea.

After weeks of behind-the-scenes diplomacy on the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, there has been apparent progress on allowing experts to visit nuclear sites, while North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is expected to visit Russia, China’s Xi Jinping will travel to Pyongyang and the spadework has been done for a second US-North Korea summit.