Leaders plan strategy
STANDOFF: US, SOUTH KOREA, JAPAN SAY TIME FOR DIALOGUE IS OVER
North’s foreign minister says threats will have zero impact.
North Korea’s nuclear threat took centre stage at the United Nations (UN) yesterday as US President Donald Trump held talks with leaders of Japan and South Korea and the Security Council meets to push for sanctions to be enforced against Pyongyang.
Trump sat down with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean leader Moon Jae-In to discuss the way forward.
Also yesterday, Moon took the UN podium to appeal for international support in the standoff with the North.
The threat from North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests has dominated this year’s gathering, but divisions remain over how to confront Pyongyang.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who also delivered their speeches, have called for diplomatic talks.
On Wednesday, Japan’s Abe backed the tough US stance, declaring that the time for dialogue with North Korea was over.
The council last week adopted new punitive measures, slapping an export ban on textiles, ending work permits for North Korean guest workers and capping oil shipments.
The United States called for the special council meeting on non-proliferation.
Abe said the world had already tried to reach a negotiated settlement with North Korea, starting with the US-backed 1994 Agreed Framework that collapsed a decade later.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho, who took to the podium, dismissed Trump’s threats to destroy his country as “a dog’s bark” and said they would have zero impact.