Tillerson visits Thailand to rebuild ties and keep up pressure on North Korea
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson visited Thailand and Malaysia yesterday, in an effort to shore up relations with two of Washington’s South-East Asian allies and urge them to maintain pressure on North Korea.
Mr Tillerson flew to Bangkok from the Philippines, where he met members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) at an annual gathering that focused on North Korea’s push to advance its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.
He became the top US official to visit Thailand since the nation’s military seized power from an elected civilian government three years ago, causing relations with the US to sour.
Thailand has long been one of Washington’s closest regional allies, but relations have been strained over US criticism of Thailand’s military government for its repression of critics and failure to restore democracy. Donald Trump’s administration, however, has made human rights less of a priority than its predecessors did.
Like other South-East Asian countries, Thailand has been cultivating closer ties with China, which has also caused consternation in Washington.
Thai foreign minister Don Pramudwinai said that he and Mr Tillerson had discussed Washington’s efforts to ensure that pressure was maintained on North Korea to drop its nuclear weapons programme.
He said Thailand, as a member of the United Nations, adhered to its sanctions on Pyongyang, which resulted in a 94 per cent decline in trade with North Korea from January to June this year compared with the same period last year.
Thailand is one of several South-East Asian countries to host a North Korean embassy and enjoys valuable bilateral trade with the reclusive regime.
In 2014, the two countries shared trade worth US$126 million (Dh462.9m), according to Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs.
But Washington wants Thailand to crack down on North Korean companies that use the capital as a trading hub through front businesses, according to acting US assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, Susan Thornton.
Ahead of Mr Tillerson’s trip to Thailand, Ms Thornton also said the US secretary of state would lean on the kingdom to tighten visa requirements for North Koreans entering Thailand and squeeze its diplomatic mission.
After Mr Tillerson’s meeting with Thai junta chief Prayut Chan-o-cha, a Thai government spokesman said the kingdom was ready to “co-operate and give its support” to solve the crisis on the Korean peninsula, adding that Thailand “is complying with” beefed-up UN sanctions targeting Pyongyang.
During his 45-minute talk with Mr Tillerson, Mr Don said, “nothing was discussed about human rights”.
The US secretary of state flew to Malaysia later yesterday for the last stop of his tour.