US to build pressure on NKorea in Manila talks

NORTH Korea is set to face a diplomatic barrage over its nuclear weapons program at a security forum in Manila starting this weekend, with the United States seeking to build a “chorus of condemnation.”

Foreign ministers from all the major powers involved in trying to curtail North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s atomic ambitions will be in the Philippine capital for the event, offering a rare chance for face-to-face talks on the crisis.

The United States and China have been wrestling with how best to respond to North Korea’s second intercontinental

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the North in Manila, with Washington pushing for another round of tough -

at the meeting would be a general cho provocative behavior,” Susan Thornton, told reporters in Washington.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), brings together the top

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte -

- lomatic pressure.

- ing the meeting that its nuclear weapons program is an act of self-defense against a - ment, which is due to be released at the

Ri in Manila, according to Thornton.

But Tillerson is expected to meet with the