BEIJING:€” Hillary Clinton privately said the US would "ring China with missile defence" if the Chinese government failed to curb North Korea's nuclear program.

Clinton's comments were revealed by WikiLeaks in a hack of the Clinton campaign chairman's personal account. The emails include a document excerpting Clinton's private speeches, which she has refused to release.

China has harshly criticized the US and South Korea's planned deployment of a missile-defense system against North Korea, which conducted its fifth nuclear test this year. But Clinton said she told Chinese officials that the U.S. might deploy additional ships to the region.

She also derided China's claims to almost all of the South China Sea, saying that by China's logic, the US after World War II could have labeled the Pacific Ocean the "American Sea."