G7 will ‘never okay’ a nuke-armed N Korea
TORONTO: Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) affirmed on Sunday they will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea and pledged to maintain “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang until it rids itself of nuclear weapons, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said.
“We fully agreed that we will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea,” Mr Kono said on the first day of a two-day meeting in Toronto, Canada, suggesting Pyongyang’s announcement that it will suspend nuclear tests and long-range missile launches was insufficient to meet the demands of the international community.
“We shared the view that [the North’s announcement] made no reference to the abandonment of [its] nuclear programmes,” he said.
“Compared to North Korea’s behaviour thus far, it marks one step forward. We welcome it as a positive step,” he added.
The G7 ministers called for North Korea to abandon all weapons of mass destruction, including biological and chemical weapons, and its ballistic missile programs, including short- and medium-range missiles capable of hitting South Korea and Japan, according to Mr Kono.
The other G7 members — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United States plus the European Union — meanwhile backed Mr Kono’s call for the immediate resolution of North Korea’s abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
The ministers met a day after North Korea said it will suspend nuclear tests and long-range missiles launches, as well as dismantle its only known nuclear test site, a pronouncement seen as leader Kim Jong-un playing a card ahead of his meeting on Friday with South Korean President Moon Jae In and with US President Donald Trump, expected in late May or early June.
The move by Mr Kim, however, falls short of the G7’s demand that his regime abandon all weapons of mass destruction and missiles in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way.
However, the G7 ministers were apparently at odds over the Iran nuclear deal, with Washington calling for revising it and Europe vowing to promote it as way of preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.