Obama, Xi press N. Korea to denuclearize

U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed Saturday to push for the denuclearization of North Korea, officials said, after
the leaders wrapped up two days of meetings.
   
White House national security adviser Tom Donilon said the leaders found quite a bit of "alignment" on the North Korea issue.
   
"They agreed that North Korea has to denuclearize, that neither country will accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state and that we would work together to deepen cooperation and dialogue to achieve denuclearization," he told reporters, briefing the results of the Obama-Xi meeting held at this desert oasis in California.

It marked their first meeting since Xi became China's president in March, and was intended to chart a vision for cooperation and partnership between the so-called G-2.
  
North Korea was high on the agenda, and it was a relatively easy topic for the two leaders, who face a lot of thorny bilateral and global issues, including cybersecurity and human rights, to achieve consensus.
   
The Obama administration believes China, especially under the new leadership, is increasingly tired of North Korea's provocative acts.   

Beijing has publicly said its main concern is regional stability and the denuclearization of Korea is needed in that regard.
   
In a separate news conference, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said Xi had told Obama that the two sides were "the same in their positions and objectives" on the North Korean nuclear issue. (Yonhap News)