US President Donald Trump has urged tough action against North Korea by complaining that China has failed to convince Kim to back down. At an emergency meeting of the Security Council which began yesterday, Washington battled to maintain international solidarity in the face of North Korea's nuclear threat as Russia warned that sanctions have failed and China side-stepped talk of an oil embargo.<br/><br/>The stakes were realy high in the stand-off, after the US warned that Kim Jong-Un's regime would be utterly destroyed if its pursuit of a long-range nuclear missile arsenal provokes a military response. But US-led efforts to isolate Kim, cripple his economy and force him to negotiate his own disarmament failed to prevent this week's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching US cities.<br/><br/>Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders later clarified that the US is focused on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Washington would pursue unrelenting efforts on the diplomatic front, including before the UN Security Council, to bring Pyongyang to heel.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, a South Korean defence ministry spokesman told Reuters today that Hwasong-15 missile that North Korea launched on Wednesday is a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile that can fly over 13,000 km.