A senior U.S. defense official has called for China's thorough enforcement of sanctions against North Korea, reaffirming the U.S. will continue its pressure campaign while seeking diplomatic solutions to North Korea issues.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver made the call on Tuesday at a forum discussing U.S. relations with China. 

Schriver said the United States' sanctions campaign against North Korea is intended to bring the regime to the negotiating table with a mindset to be productive and reach solutions.

Regarding working-level talks between the U.S. and North Korea in Sweden earlier this month, the U.S. official said that Washington attempted to resume diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula and he proposed to "see where that goes." 

Schriver then stressed the importance of sanctions enforcement, saying that it's critical that all countries who have the capability to contribute to that do so. 

He said that the U.S. is seeing some slippage in the enforcement of sanctions from China, particularly when it comes to ship-to-ship transfers happening in their territorial waters, adding the U.S. wants them and needs them to do better on that front.