China slams US President’s accusations over N Korea, calls Trump ‘irresponsible’ for cancelling US State Secretary Mike Pompeo’s trip to North Korea

China yesterday called Donald Trump “irresponsible” after the US president cancelled his top diplomat’s trip to North Korea and suggested Beijing was stalling efforts to disarm Pyongyang. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to make his fourth visit to the reclusive state next week for what he described as the next step towards the “final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea”.

But Trump -- facing a slew of domestic problems and independent reports that North Korea has done little or nothing to roll back its nuclear programme -- vetoed the plan. The US leader said Friday he had asked Pompeo not to go to Pyongyang “because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”.

Trump also stepped up his rhetoric against China, which has grown harsher as November congressional elections approach and as a trade war rages between the world’s top two economies.