Sharjah24 – AFP: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday pressed Chinese leader Xi Jinping on regional security issues including North Korea, as Pyongyang fired the latest missile in a record blitz that has sent nuclear fears soaring.

Kishida said he had voiced "serious concerns" in his first face-to-face talks with Xi as the leaders of Asia's two biggest economies met on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim summit in Bangkok.

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile as Xi and Kishida prepared to meet, and warned Washington and its allies to expect a "fiercer" military response.

China and Japan are key trading partners, but relations have soured in recent years as Beijing bolsters its military, projects power regionally, and takes a harder line on territorial rivalries.

"On North Korea, I expressed our expectation that China will play a role including in the UN security council," Kishida told reporters after the talks, the first in-person meeting between Chinese and Japanese leaders in three years.

Xi flew to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok from a G20 summit in Bali where US President Joe Biden also pushed him to use his influence to rein in North Korea's activities.

China is Pyongyang's main diplomatic and economic ally, and in May it joined Russia in vetoing a US-led bid at the UN Security Council to tighten sanctions on North Korea.