North Korea meeting to stress importance of sanctions

VANCOUVER: A summit on curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions will focus in part on how to ensure countries fully implement all the sanctions imposed on the reclusive state, a Canadian government source said on Monday.
Senior officials from 20 nations will gather in Vancouver on Tuesday for the full-day meeting, which is designed to increase diplomatic and financial pressure on Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear programs. Canada and the United States are co-hosts.
The United Nations Security Council, which has already imposed a wide range of sanctions, last month approved new punitive measures seeking to limit Pyongyang’s access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and its earnings from workers abroad.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shows little sign of bowing to the pressure.
The Canadian government source said some nations had less experience than others when it came to sanctions.
“It is not insignificant to talk about how we can ensure an even application of those sanctions everywhere, not just by some of the larger or more developed countries,” said the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.
The international community wants to make sure that patchy implementation of the sanctions does not undermine efforts to force North Korea to the negotiating table, said the source.
“It is prudent to have that sort of conversation and ensure that (poor imposition of sanctions) doesn’t become a reality,” the source added.
Although immediate fears of war have eased after the first round of intra-Korean talks in more than two years last week, tensions over Kim’s missile tests remain high.
In Tokyo, a government source said the world needed to “force North Korea to change its policy by maximizing pressure through all available means, including through full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions and autonomous sanctions.”
China, North Korea’s main ally and principal trading partner, is not at the conference, which diplomats say will limit what can be achieved.
Last month US President Donald Trump accused China of allowing oil into North Korea, which he said would prevent “a friendly solution” to the nuclear crisis. Beijing denied the charge.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who will be at the Vancouver meeting, on Monday said the international community had to stand united.
“Sanctions are biting but we need to maintain diplomatic pressure on Kim Jong Un’s regime,” he said in a statement.