WASHINGTON — Otto Warmbier’s death after returning from North Korean imprisonment is stoking outrage in Washington and threatening to overshadow high-level U.S.-Chinese talks today.

President Donald Trump has been counting on China to use its economic leverage with Kim Jong Un’s totalitarian government as American concern grows over North Korea’s acceleration toward having a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the U.S. mainland.

Top U.S. and Chinese diplomats and defense chiefs are meeting in the U.S. capital for security talks, and North Korea will get “top billing,” according to Susan Thornton, the senior U.S. diplomat for East Asia.

The talks separate out the security aspects, and Secretary of State State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis are hosting Chinese foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi and Gen. Fang Fenghui, chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s joint staff department.

Thornton said talks would cover the South China Sea, where Beijing’s island-building and construction of possible military facilities have rattled neighbors and caused tension with Washington; U.S.-Chinese military cooperation to reduce risk of conflict; and efforts to defeat the Islamic State group.

While Trump has heaped praise on Xi for trying to contain North Korea, which counts on China for some 90 percent of its trade, the effort has delivered few results. Trump appeared to acknowledge as much in a tweet Wednesday, a day after Warmbier’s death.

“While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!” Trump wrote.