US Secretary of State Tillerson calls for continued sanctions pressure on North Korea, warns on military option

NewsBharati 17-Jan-2018

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Vancouver, January 17: Despite South Korea-North Korea detent, twenty nations including US have agreed on Tuesday to consider tougher sanctions to press North Korea. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for continued sanctions pressure to compel North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

"We must increase the costs of the regime’s behavior to the point that North Korea must come to the table for credible negotiations," Tillerson told the one-day meeting in the Pacific Canadian city, Vancouver. It also warned the nuclear freak country of a military response if it does not want to come under negotiation.

The meeting was attended by foreign ministers and senior diplomats of some 20 nations that assisted South Korea in the Korean War. As China and Russia did not attain the meeting, Tillerson urged the countries to fully implement UN sanctions.

Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono did not how much enthusiasm about inter-Korean talk and told the countries not be fooled by Pyongyang’s "charm offensive". But South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said those talks were a "significant first step toward restoring inter-Korean relations."

“Our approach is, in terms of having North Korea chose the correct step, is to present them with what is the best option – talks are the best option; that when they look at the military situation, that’s not a good outcome for them, ” Tillerson said.