India tells US it plans to retain North Korea embassy

NEW DELHI: India yesterday told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson it plans to retain its North Korean embassy, so as to keep open channels of communication as Washington steps up global pressure to isolate Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile programmes.

Tillerson held talks with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj as part of a new effort by the Trump administration to deepen economic and strategic ties, as a way to balance China's growing clout across Asia.

Both sides pledged to strengthen anti-terrorism cooperation and Tillerson said Washington stood ready to provide India with advanced military technologies.

“The United States supports India's emergence as a leading power and will continue to contribute to Indian capabilities to provide security throughout the region,” Tillerson told a joint news conference with Swaraj.

Swaraj said the issue of India's diplomatic and economic relations with North Korea came up during the talks but she conveyed to the top US diplomat that some level of diplomatic presence was necessary.

“As far as the question of embassy goes, our embassy there is very small, but there is in fact an embassy,” she said.

“I told Secretary Tillerson that some of their friendly countries should maintain embassies there so that some channels of communication are kept open.”

India and North Korea maintain diplomatic offices in each other's capitals, though New Delhi recently banned trade of most goods with the country, except food or medicine. — AFP