Freeland counsels caution on Korean talks

OTTAWA — The world needs to be “careful” to ensure historic talks between North and South Korea lead to a nuclear-free peninsula, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday as she welcomed a pledge by the leaders of the two nations to work toward a formal end to hostilities.

“We all need to be careful and not assume anything,” Freeland said in Washington when asked whether Canada has any concerns with what has emerged as the early stages of a fledgling peace process.

The focus has to remain on the issue of nuclear proliferation, said Freeland, who was in the U.S. capital for the ongoing NAFTA negotiations.

“That is the Canadian concern, that is the focus of Canadian sanctions and that is the focus of this diplomatic process, which we really welcome and encourage,” she told reporters.

“To that end, we also call on North Korea to demonstrate concrete action toward completely, verifiably and irreversibly dismantling its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs,” Freeland added in a statement.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in issued a joint statement Friday pledging to rid the shared peninsula of nuclear weapons and seek a formal end to the Korean War by year’s end. Fighting in the 195053 war was halted by an armistice, but without an actual peace treaty.

The statement did not provide specific details on achieving these goals.

U.S. President Donald Trump — who claimed credit Friday for facilitating the meeting — said he believes North Korea’s motives are sincere, although he acknowledged concerns over being “played” by the notoriously non-committal Kim regime.

But the Trump administration won’t fall prey to false overtures the way previous U.S. governments have, he added.

“I agree, the United States has been played beautifully, like a fiddle, because you had a different kind of a leader,” Trump said. “We’re not going to be played.”

For many Canadians, especially those who fought in the Korean War, any prospect for a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula would be welcome, said Conservative foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole.

“I think that’s historic,” O’Toole said of the pledge to finally go beyond an armistice. “Canadians fought and died in the Korean War.”

More than 26,000 Canadians served in the Korean War from around the time it began in June 1950 until the active fighting ended on July 27, 1953, with approximately 7,000 remaining stationed in the peninsula until August 1957.

In all, 516 Canadians died in what is the third-deadliest conflict in Canadian history, according to Veterans Affairs Canada.