Efforts are under way to convene “five-party talks” involving North Korea’s neighbours and the US as officials search for diplomatic avenues to respond to the Asian country’s missile tests last week without further highlighting the divergent views over how to deal with the rogue state.

But China, the host of the talks, and North Korea’s closest ally, is understood to be unwilling to hold a meeting without Kim Jong-il’s representatives, posing another challenge to presenting a united front in condemning the tests.