Mattis: U.S. conflict with China is 'not inevitable'

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said after a high-level meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials on Wednesday that both nations are not doomed to conflict and continue to share the goal of a de-nuclearized North Korea.

"Our two nations can and do cooperate in mutually beneficial ways," he said. "While competition between our nations is bound to occur, conflict is not inevitable."

Mattis said China and the United States share the same goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and had "open and frank" discussions about what more Chinese officials can do to pressure the North Korean regime to cease provocative military actions.

The defense secretary also highlighted the recent death of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, who died shortly after he was freed from 18 months of detention in North Korea.

"We see a young man go over there healthy and with a minor act of mischief come home dead, basically," Mattis said. "There's no way we can look at a situation like this with any kind of understanding. What you're seeing I think is the American people's frustration with a regime that provokes and provokes and provokes. China continues to work these issues. China's end state on the Korean Peninsula is the same as ours."