The U.S. President Barack Obama praised the leadership of the Chinese President Xi Jinping and said he was happy that China was taking a tougher stance against North Korea's nuclear program.
In a forty-five-minute interview with PBS' Charlie Rose, the U.S. president said that China was taking more responsibility in world affairs since his appointment as the new president of Peoples' Republic of China.
"We've seen the Chinese take more seriously the problem of constant provocation and statements from the North Koreans -- rejecting the nuclearisation," said Barack Obama in the interview that was aired Monday.
"In the past, they would try to paper over the intentions," said Obama. "They kind of pushed those problems aside. We're seeing, I think, an interest and a willingness to engage with us in a strategic conversation around those things."
Days after a summit in California between the two leaders, Obama described the new Chinese president as "younger, more robust and more confident" than his predecessors.
"My impression of President Xi is that he has consolidated his position fairly rapidly inside of China, that he is younger and more forceful and more robust and more confident, perhaps, than some leaders in the past," said the U.S. president.
Speaking on the Charlie Rose Show, President Obama touched a wide-range of topics including the outcome of the Iranian presidential election, the violence in Syria, and the U.S. president also revealed that he had a "very blunt conversation with Xi Jinping about cyber security earlier this month during the summit in California."
China is Pyongyang's best buddy and the main economic and diplomatic supporter of Kim Jong-un's isolated regime but in recent months, China formally cracked down on North Korean bank accounts as part of new U.N. -led sanctions following Pyongyang's third nuclear missiles test in February despite a wave of warnings from the Beijing government.
Following a series of nuclear weapons tests by Pyongyang earlier this year, North Korea and U.S- backed South Korea exchanged almost a daily stream of threats, escalating the tensions over the Korean peninsula.
Recently, Pyongyang and Seoul cancelled high-level-talks over delegation dispute.
Instead, Pongyang has extended an invitation of high level talks to Washington last week and the U.S. administration has responded favorably.
