White House officials will press China to hasten exports of rare earths and magnets and stick to an agreement the countries signed in Geneva, during economic talks today.

US stocks were mixed on Monday and the S&P 500 approached an all-time high as trade talks between the US and China kicked off in London.

In mid-May, China and the United States struck a 90-day truce in their bruising tariff war and rolled back most of the triple-digit levies they heaped on each other's goods in early April.

According to Beijing, high-ranking representatives of both countries have met for a second round of negotiations in the tariff dispute between the USA and China. Vice head of government He Lifeng began his talks "with the American side" in London.

China's export growth slowed to a three-month low in May as U.S. tariffs slammed shipments, while factory-gate deflation deepened to its worst level in two years, heaping pressure on the world's second-largest economy on both the domestic and external fronts.

China has traditionally viewed North Korea as a security buffer and an ideologically aligned neighbor it can dominate.

A highly visible missile base on Okinawa is part of a Japanese defense buildup made amid fears of Beijing’s growing power and questions about U.S. commitment.