Pence made the remarks in an interview with Fox News on Sunday during a trip to Estonia.  "We believe China should do more,” he said when asked about the recent firing of a missile by North Korea towards Japan.

“The president has been clear about that in his conversations with President Xi [Jinping] that while China has taken unprecedented steps to begin to isolate North Korea economically and to bring diplomatic pressure, we believe China has a unique relationship with the regime in North Korea and has a unique ability to influence decisions by that regime and we call on China to use that influence along with other nations in the region to encourage North Korea to join the family of nations, to embrace a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and abandon its provocative actions and its ballistic missile program," Pence said.

The vice president’s statement came the same day US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called on China to clear up its mind on imposing greater sanctions against North Korea.

She said she is “done” discussing North Korea and that any solution to the crisis must be a joint effort with regional partners. "China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over," she said.