US can't rein in DPRK by using force

The international community is keeping a close eye on the Korean Peninsula situation as Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in pays a four-day state visit to China, especially because Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency termed the just concluded US-ROK military drill a "projected war rehearsal" that will push the already acute situation on the peninsula to "the brink of nuclear war".

Moon, who held talks with President Xi Jinping on Thursday, told China Central Television in an interview before embarking on the visit that the goal of his visit is to normalize relations with China following the controversy over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in the ROK.

Aside from bilateral relations, the two sides also discussed ways to resolve the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear issue. The use of terms such as "projected war rehearsal" and "the brink of nuclear war" by the DPRK's news agency and the testing of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile by Pyongyang on Nov 29, which it claimed could hit the United States mainland, has made the stakeholders in Northeast Asia more anxious.