Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Trump's patience for North Korea's provocations is running out, White House aides said Tuesday, with little time left for the regime to comply with demands it give up its nuclear weapons.

"The clock has now run out, and all options are on the table for us," a senior White House official told reporters Tuesday.

The North Korea situation is a matter of "urgent interest" as Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping this week at his personal Mar-a-Lago retreat in West Palm Beach, Fla. The leaders of the world's two largest economies will meet over two days in what officials said was mostly an introductory session. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

But even as the White House played down expectations on the trade deficit, the South China Sea, cyber-security and other issues, Trump will press the Chinese to take a more forceful approach to North Korea, using its considerable economic clout as leverage.

As Trump himself said in an interview with the Financial Times, "I think trade is the incentive. It is all about trade."

China accounts for almost 90% of North Korea's international trade, and North Korean exports of coal are a major source of cash for the isolated regime. And the U.S. is a major source of cash for the Chinese. "So even though we hear sometimes that China’s political influence may have diminished with North Korea, clearly its economic leverage has not," the White House official said.

But beyond general restatements of U.S. policy and an emphasis on trade issues, the White House tamped down expectations for the leader's first face-to-face meeting. There's no set script, and Chinese diplomacy usually involves a slow process of developing a framework for future discussions before substantive talks can begin.

"We're going to talk about a lot of things, including, of course, North Korea," Trump said Tuesday at a town hall meeting with CEOs. "And that's really a humanity problem."

Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have been running even hotter in the wake of missile tests that the hermit nation brazenly launches in defiance of U.S. wishes. On Wednesday, North Korea fired an apparent ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, according to South Korean military leaders. The missile was fired just hours after Trump's "humanity problem" comment.

But most of Trump's pre-meeting talk has been about trade. After signing two executive orders to target the trade deficit last Friday, Trump predicted a "difficult" meeting with the Chinese leader.

"I think we’re going to have a very interesting talk," Trump told the CEOs. "But we have to do better, because our deficit with China, as you know, $504 billion. That’s a year. That’s enough for a lifetime," Trump said. (The actual trade deficit was $347 billion in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.)

The meeting will take place over two days, but it will only be about 24 hours from Xi's arrival to departure. That's enough time for a formal dinner — the first ladies are also attending — and a working lunch the next day. They will not play golf, officials said, referring to Xi's somewhat famous disdain for the sport.

Read more:

China urges U.S. to be 'coolheaded' in approach to North Korea

U.S.-China trade scorecard: advantage China

Other topics that may come up:

► One-China policy: After an early misstep during the transition in which Trump seemed to open the door to Taiwanese independence, the White House has taken a more conventional policy with all the requisite language that China likes to hear: a one-China policy under the three joint communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act. The official said there was no expectation that Trump would deviate from that.

► South China Sea: The Trump White House will continue to raise objections to Chinese activity in the South China Sea, just as President Obama did. The United States, one official said, will continue to sail and fly where international law allows.

► Human rights: The meeting with Xi comes just three days after Trump invited Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose repressive policies have drawn censure from human rights groups. But the White House insists that human rights continue to occupy a central place in U.S. foreign policy.