CHINA said yesterday that a mutual halt to provocative actions by the United States and North Korea stands the best chance for ending the countries’ standoff.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that the North should suspend its nuclear weapons programme at the same time as the US and South Korea stopping military exercises near the border.

Mr Geng called the “freeze-for-freeze initiative” the “most viable and reasonable plan” which would also address “the most urgent security concerns of all sides.”

That would “create opportunities and conditions for the resumption of peace talks, and find breakthroughs to get out of this stalemate.”

“We hope that all sides can conscientiously treat and proactively consider China’s proposal, and at the same time we welcome relevant parties to put forward proposals that can benefit the promotion of a peaceful resolution for the peninsula nuclear issue,” Mr Geng said.

China and Russia made the proposal — first offered by Pyongyang — as a means to restart six-nation denuclearisation talks that have been stalled for a decade.

However, US President Donald Trump has recently claimed that he had ruled out such a deal when he visited Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.

“We agreed that we would not accept a so-called freeze-for-freeze agreement like those that have consistently failed in the past,” Mr Trump said.

He threatened that “all options remain on the table.”