States at Vancouver Meeting Want Unileteral Sanctions Against N Korea

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Twenty states that took part in a meeting of foreign ministers in Canada's Vancouver have agreed to ensure the strict enforcement of sanctions against North Korea and to prevent Pyongyang from circumventing the restrictions, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

"The 20 nations represented here, in Vancouver, have agreed that we must work together to ensure that sanctions imposed on North Korea are strictly enforced," the Canadian minister said Tuesday, following the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Freeland added that the participants of the meeting agreed to ensure that North Korea would be unable to evade the sanctions and to cut "financial lifelines for the country's weapons of mass destruction."

The joint statement released after the meeting reads that the participants have agreed “to impose unilateral sanctions and further diplomatic actions that go beyond those required by UN Security Council resolutions.”

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland holds a bilateral meeting with the South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, January 15, 2018

© REUTERS / Ben Nelms

The representatives of Russia and China, who were not present at the gathering, has argued that the event wouldn't contribute to the improvement of the situation on the Korean peninsula. While Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it would likely be "counterproductive," Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman Lu Kang said that the summit would exacerbate "divisions within the international community" on the issue of North Korean nuclear program.

Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that North Korea might end up forcing its opponents to use the military solution to the mounting tensions if it did not agree to settle the differences through negotiations. Tillerson added that the implementation of the sanctions so far had not required much force.

READ MORE: Russia and China Criticize Vancouver Meeting on North Korea

The situation on the Korean Peninsula grew particularly tense in 2017 as Pyongyang continued to pursue its nuclear and missile programs despite warnings of the international community. The UN Security Council imposed two rounds of sanctions on Pyongyang last year, with the latest resolution that was adopted on December 24, 2017, forbidding oil sales to North Korea and buying textiles from the country.