CANADIAN SUMMIT SPARKS TENSION
China, Russia condemn as unhelpful international meetings being held in Vancouver today to discuss North Korea,
VANCOUVER— China and Russia, frozen out of Tuesday’s diplomatic strategy session co-hosted by Canada to discuss how to better contain North Korea’s rogue regime, are condemning the gathering as unproductive and unhelpful.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is hosting Tuesday’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that brings together foreign affairs ministers from 11 countries, officials from nine others but has left China and Russia on the sidelines. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied reports that Moscow was supportive of the gathering.
“We said clearly that we consider these efforts and this meeting to be destructive,” Lavrov told a Moscow briefing, according to a report by the Tass news service.
The top Russian diplomat criticized the list of invitees, which is based on the countries that contributed personnel to the United Nations force during the Korean War.
“When we heard about this meeting, we asked, ‘What is it for, why such participants?’ ” Lavrov said of the meeting.
Officials from Italy, the Philippines and Greece are also included.
Chinese officials have also spoken out against the meeting, with a foreign affairs spokesperson quoted as saying it would only create divisions and set back efforts to resolve the crisis. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the decision to exclude Russia and China from the meeting, telling The Canadian Press on Monday that “there are always going to be different venues and different groupings happening.”
Canada has said Russia and China are instrumental to resolving the North Korean crisis but conceded Monday that their officials were invited to Vancouver only to hear par- ticipants talk of their deliberations rather than take part in the discussions themselves.
The daylong session will examine diplomatic and economic ways to ratchet up the pressure on North Korea and force the isolated regime to the table to negotiate an end to its nuclear weapons program. In a day of closed-door meetings, the foreign ministers will discuss the current situation, sanctions, non-proliferation and North Korea’s evolving capabilities, diplomacy and next steps.
North Korea has become increasingly sophisticated in its ability to evade sanctions and one goal of the Vancouver meeting is to highlight gaps in the flow of goods and resources and discuss ways to better enforce UN resolutions.
That will include a discussion about maritime interdictions to better screen vessels bound to North Korea with illicit cargo banned under UN sanctions. But with a focus on diplomatic resolutions, a plan to blockade the country is not likely to emerge from Tuesday’s meeting.
Canadian officials sought to dampen expectations, cautioning that an issue so complex, involving many players and decades in the making, won’t be solved in a day.
Freeland kicked off the discussions Monday, when she met with Taro Kono, minister of foreign affairs from Japan, and Kang Kyung-wha, her counterpart from South Korea.
Officials from all the invited countries later gathered for dinner Monday, joined by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and his U.S. counterpart, Jim Mattis.
The tensions around North Korea have eased somewhat in recent weeks with news that the country will send athletes to compete in the Winter Olympics, hosted by South Korea. As well, the United States and South Korea have agreed to delay military exercises, seen as provocative by North Korea, until after the Games next month.
But South Korea goes into the meeting urging other countries to be wary about North Korea’s behaviour and says a balance must be struck between tough economic sanctions and dialogue to find a path to defuse a recent escalation of tensions.
“I think it’s quite a significant step forward. But this is the first step North Korea has taken. There is a long way to go because we are aiming at denuclearization, not just the participation of North Korea in sports events,” said Shin Maeng-ho, South Korea’s ambassador to Canada.
Shin said the summit comes at a “critical and sensitive” time as tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have escalated sharply in recent months as the leaders of both nations trade bellicose taunts. But the Olympic détente has created an opportunity for dialogue, he said.
Different motives have been cited for North Korea’s recent moves: an effort to drive a wedge between South Korea and the U.S.; buying time to further develop its weapons capabilities; or an attempt to have punishing international sanctions loosened.
Whatever the reason, Shin says it’s better to have dialogue “to test their sincerity, their real motive behind this peace initiative.”
He conceded what other experts say: now that North Korea has developed nuclear weapons and the missile technology to deliver them, perhaps even to North America, it will be difficult to pressure Kim Jong Un to give up that capability.