Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet on Tuesday with U.S. allies from the Korean War to discuss the nuclear threat that North Korea poses as well as to tighten economic sanctions on the dictatorship regime, AP says.
The meeting in Vancouver is hosted by Tillerson and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland and will be attended by foreign ministers and senior diplomats. It will seek to increase pressure on North Korea so as to deprive it of revenue for weapons development. Officials from European and Asian nations are also to discuss cooperation on sanctions, diplomacy and preventing the spread of weapons by North Korea.
According to Tillerson’s senior policy adviser, Brian Hook, there is still more to be done in order to intercept ships conducting illegal trade with North Korea. He also added that the United Nations needed to mandate a port entry ban for such ships.
“We believe that this pressure campaign remains the best avenue to force change in Kim Jong Un’s behavior and to get him to the negotiating table for meaningful discussions,” Hook noted.
China and Russia were not invited to the meeting despite having the closest economic and diplomatic ties to Pyongyang. They oppose the meeting and say that without them the nuclear issue cannot be resolved. According to Hook, they will be briefed afterward.
The latest UN Security Council resolution from December 2017, adopted in response to a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test, calls on member states to impound vessels suspected of illicit trade with the North and authorizes interdictions in a member state’s territorial waters.
It additionally restricts imports of crude oil to North Korea, as well as import of refined petroleum products. Combined with previous resolutions it bans over 90 percent of the nation’s publicly reported exports.
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