The United States has warned China not to attempt a landing in Taiwan, proverbially difficult

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The US National Security Adviser warned China against any attempts to seize Taiwan by force , saying that a landing was proverbially difficult and it was not clear whether the United States would respond, Reuters reported.

Robert O'Brien said at an event at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas that China carried out a massive sea accumulation of forces that are not monitored by the experience of Germany to compete with the British Royal Navy before World War .

"Part of that is having the ability to push us out of the western Pacific , which will allow them to try landing in Taiwan. The problem is that the landings are proverbially difficult ," O'Brien added, citing a distance of 160 km. between China and Taiwan and the scarcity of beaches to moor the island.

"This is not an easy task and there is a lot of uncertainty about what the United States would do in response to China's attack on Taiwan ," he said, when asked what the US options would be if China tried to take over Taiwan .

O'Brien refers to a long-standing US policy of "strategic ambiguity" over whether to intervene to protect Taiwan, which China considers its province and has vowed to bring under its control, by force if necessary.

The United States is required by law to provide Taiwan with protection , but has not made it clear whether it will intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack, something that is likely to lead to a much wider conflict with Beijing.

O'Brien's comments come at a time when China has significantly stepped up military activity near Taiwan and when US-China relations have fallen to their lowest point in decades before President Donald Trump's November 3 re-election.

O'Brien reiterated US calls for Taiwan to spend more on its own defense and carry out military reforms to show China the risks it faces in trying to invade .

He said, you can't just spend 1% of your GDP, which the Taiwanese have done - 1.2% - on defense, and hope to stop China , which has been involved in the most massive military construction in 70 years. Taiwan needs to "become a military hedgehog, lions don't usually eat them.

Earlier, a senior U.S. defense official for East Asia called Taiwan 's plan to increase defense spending by $ 1.4 billion next year insufficient .

He said there was a need to invest in capabilities, including more coastal cruise missiles , naval mines, rapid-fire vessels, mobile artillery and modern surveillance equipment.

Taiwan's defense ministry in response to Reuters, said it would "strive for an adequate budget" in line with their needs to build a solid national defense force .

Meanwhile , the defense ministers of the Republic of Korea and the United States , Seo Wook and Mark Esper, reaffirmed their commitment to the two countries' alliance and agreed to continue co-operation to deepen co-operation on defense issues. A representative of the South Korean military said in Seoul on Thursday that the agreement was reached during a telephone conversation between the ministers.

It precedes the 52nd annual South Korean-US joint security consultative meeting to be held on October 14 in Washington.

At the upcoming meeting, ministers are expected to discuss issues such as the transfer of operational control of their troops to South Korea in wartime, as well as the distribution of costs for maintaining the US military contingent .