U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Tuesday the Trump administration believes China is using "back channel networking" with North Korea to try and get Kim Jong Un to stop nuclear and ballistic missile testing.

Axar.az reports citing Time.

"We believe they are being productive," she told reporters. "We do think they're trying to counter what is happening now."

Haley said China knows North Korea best "and so we're going to keep the pressure on China, but we're going to continue to work with them in any way that they think is best."

At the same time, Haley said, the United States and China are discussing the timing of a new Security Council resolution that would toughen sanctions against North Korea in response to its latest ballistic missile launches. The latest launch on Monday was the third in three weeks.

Beijing has significant influence over North Korea, 90 percent of whose trade is with China.

But China's U.N. ambassador, Liu Jieyi, made clear last week that Beijing's top priority is to restart talks with North Korea following its multiple tests to try to reduce tensions rather than impose new sanctions. He stressed that all progress with Pyongyang on eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula has come through dialogue.

Haley said Washington and Beijing are trying to decide the best way to approach North Korea.

"I don't think it's backpedaling as much as nothing is changing North Korea's actions," she said. "If this is going to happen every other day, how should we respond in a way that we actually stop these things, or slow it down?"

"I think we're having those conversations this week, and I hope that we can come up with a final solution," Haley added.