China has been building up its defences along its border with North Korea, a report says, amid tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Beijing has established a new border brigade, built bunkers to protect civilians against nuclear blasts, and set up 24-hour surveillance along its frontier, the Wall Street Journal said.

China has also realigned its forces in the country’s northeast, added the report, which cites Chinese military and government websites and Chinese and foreign experts.

Officials in Beijing regularly call for a peaceful solution to the North Korean issue, but US president Donald Trump is growing increasingly impatient towards Kim Jong-un’s regime.

On Monday, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters he could not answer a “hypothetical” question on what China’s military would do in the event of a clash on the Korean peninsula.

Lu Kang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: “China always maintains that military options shall never be considered to resolve the Korean Peninsula issue, because force will in no way settle disputes, but will only bring greater suffering, unbearable to all.”

Trump administration officials also recognise that a potential conflict would bring chaos to the region.

US Defence secretary Jim Mattis said in June that it would be “a war more serious in terms of human suffering than anything we have seen since 1953”.

But North Korea raised the stakes with the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile as Americans celebrated Independence Day on July 4.

The US and China said on Tuesday they are making progress on a new UN resolution that would impose additional sanctions against North Korea in response to the ICBM launch.

Some observers predict the reclusive state could stage another test of military hardware on Thursday, the anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice and a public holiday in North Korea.

China is undergoing a long-term modernisation of its armed forces, and has been strengthening defences on its shared border with North Korea since Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

China also has concerns that any potential military clash involving North Korea and the US will flood its north-eastern provinces with refugees, causing a major headache for the country’s stability-obsessed rulers.

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