WASHINGTON -- The United States is unlikely to go to nuclear war with North Korea despite the recent escalation in tensions, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency said Sunday.

David Petraeus, who served in the Barack Obama administration from 2011-2012, said he thinks US President Donald Trump has been using tough rhetoric with North Korea to get the attention of the leadership in China, not in Pyongyang.

"This is about getting President Xi's attention ... so that China will really clamp down on the umbilical cord through which 90 percent of the trade that goes to and from North Korea transits," Petraeus said in an interview on ABC News.

China is able to "bring North Korea to its senses," he added, alluding to Beijing's leverage as Pyongyang's main ally and economic benefactor.

North Korea carried out two long-range missile tests in July and a sixth nuclear test in September. Trump declared shortly thereafter that he would "totally destroy" the North if it posed a direct threat to the US

Petraeus said a nuclear war is still unlikely.

"I don't think likely. No," he said. "I think, in fact, that again all of this is a communications strategy that is trying to make sure that China understands that this administration is in a very different situation from any of its predecessors, that North Korea on this president's watch could have the capability to hit a city in the United States with a nuclear weapon."

He also held out hope for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

"I think there's still an opportunity here," he said. (Yonhap)