US to stop trying to build diplomatic bridges with North Korea
Video report by ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine
The US is to stop trying to build diplomatic bridges with North Korea after three decades of failed attempts.
The news comes less than 24 hours after the secretive state fired a ballistic missile into the waters off its east coast.
US President Donald Trump has meanwhile reiterated his pledge to strengthen US defences in the wake of North Korea's launch.
The test has stoked fears Pyongyang might soon conduct banned nuclear or long-range rocket tests and will soon be able to put a nuclear warhead on a missile that could reach the US.
Mr Trump made the statement in a phonecall with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of the US president's meeting with President Xi Jinping of China.
The White House said Mr Trump "made clear that the United States will continue to strengthen its ability to deter and defend itself and its allieswith the full range of its military capabilities".
Mr Trump is expected to begin pressuring President Xi to rein in North Korea when they meet in the US on Thursday.
Yet experts fear North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un will not listen to calls for restraint from anybody, even the Chinese.
North Korea is "adverse to any high level contacts with the Chinese," said Victor Cha from the Centre of Strategic and International Studies.
He continued: "Many people think it's the Chinese that are the ones that don't want to have the contacts with the North Koreans, when actually its the North Koreans that don't care to have the contacts with the Chinese."
Aside from pressuring President Xi, one of President Trump's many options even includes conducting pre-emptive air strikes on North Korea, with potential targets already selected.
South Korean and US troops are currently halfway through a two-month long annual military drill - drills which the North have made clear it views as an "invasion rehearsal".
Instead the allies say that they are readying themselves for a war in which they could see one million people dying.