Korean War allies meet on North nuke threat
Pressure campaign to change Kim’s conduct
VANCOUVER: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was yesterday expected to huddle with nations that fought on America’s side in the Korean War, looking to tighten the economic noose around North Korea over its nuclear weapons even as hopes rise for diplomacy.
The 20-nation gathering on Canada’s western coast comes days after a mistaken missile alert caused panic on Hawaii, a stark reminder of the fears of conflict with the North after a year of escalating tension.
The meeting in Vancouver, hosted by Mr Tillerson and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland, was called before the recent start of talks between North and South Korea, the first in two years. The North restored a military hotline and agreed to participate in the Winter Olympics being hosted in February by the South, a close US ally.
US President Donald Trump has also signalled openness to talks with North Korea under the right circumstances. Despite the insults and blood-curdling threats he has traded with its leader Kim Jong Un, he suggested in an interview that the two leaders could have a positive relationship.
But Mr Kim, widely viewed as seeking to drive a wedge between the US and South Korea, shows no sign of making concessions towards Washington as his totalitarian government comes close to perfecting a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the United States.
The Vancouver meeting is intended to boost the campaign of “maximum pressure’’ that the Trump administration has championed to deprive the North of revenue for weapons development. Officials will discuss cooperation on sanctions, preventing the spread of weapons by North Korea, and diplomacy.
Brian Hook, Mr Tillerson’s senior policy adviser, said more needs to be done to interdict ships conducting illicit trade with North Korea. He said the US wants the United Nations to mandate a port entry ban for such vessels.
The meeting is being attended by foreign ministers and senior diplomats of nations that sent troops or humanitarian aid to the UN Command that supported South Korea in the fight against the communist North and its allies during the 1950-53 Korean War. It’s a diverse gathering of mostly European and Asian nations, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Colombia. Japan and South Korea are also taking part.
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis was to join a welcoming dinner for the delegates later yesterday.
China and Russia, which fought on the communist side in the war, oppose the meeting. They were not invited although they have the closest economic and diplomatic ties to North Korea.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters that a meeting that “doesn’t include important parties to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue’’ cannot help resolve it.
Mr Hook said China and Russia would be briefed afterwards, and said the inter-Korean talks won’t change yesterday’s agenda. “We believe this pressure campaign remains the best avenue to force change in Kim Jong-un’s behaviour and to get him to the negotiating table,’’ he said.
The latest UN Security Council resolution against North Korea, adopted in December in response to an intercontinental ballistic missile test, calls on member states to impound vessels suspected of illicit trade with the North, and authorises interdictions in a member state’s territorial waters. It also restricts North Korean imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products, and further cuts into its ability to raise revenue for its weapons programmes. Combined with previous UN resolutions, more than 90% of North Korea’s publicly reported exports as of 2016 are now banned.
Mr Tillerson said in a recent interview that convening the so-called “sending states’’ to the UN Command in the Korean War was done deliberately to show that diplomacy “has to be backed up by a strong military alternative’’.