China said Friday it does not hold the key to a final settlement of North Korea's nuclear issue and urged the United States to play a larger role in its resolution.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, speaking at a regular press briefing, said the crux of the issue is confrontation between North Korea and the United States, and escalating tensions are not due to China.

She made the remarks in response to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's call on China and Russia to put more pressure on North Korea following its latest ballistic missile launch early Friday.

"China supplies North Korea with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labor," Tillerson said in a statement. "China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own."

Hua said China is opposed to any North Korean action in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, but reiterated Beijing's long-standing position of appealing for calm on all sides and for the parties concerned to come back to the negotiating table to help ease ongoing tensions.

"Sanctions are not the fundamental way to solve the problem," she said, adding the international community should be aware by now that "peaceful, diplomatic and political means" are indispensable.

The North Korean missile, believed to be an intermediate-range type, flew over northern Japan into the Pacific Ocean in the second such launch in less than a month.

The missile was launched just days after the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution toughening sanctions on North Korea in the wake of its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3.

The missile this time traveled about 3,700 kilometers, a distance capable of putting the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam within range, and reached a maximum altitude of 800 km, according to Japanese officials.