VANCOUVER -- If North Korea wants freedom from sanctions and acceptance from the international community, it must end its nuclear weapons program, Canada and some of its closest partners insisted Tuesday as they kicked off a major international meeting aimed at ending Pyongyang's ongoing "nuclearization." Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her counterparts from 20 countries -- including the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Britain -- began the meeting in Vancouver with a unanimous missive to the North Korean government: give up your nuclear weapons. Tillerson was expected to push participating countries, all of whom were invited because of their support for South Korea during the Korean War, to help stop North Korean smuggling by sea. "We all must insist on a full enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions, as this is the letter of law. Washington (CNN) The United States and Canada will co-host an international summit on the North Korean nuclear threat in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Tuesday, as tensions on the Korean Peninsula settle into a steady simmer while direct talks between the north and the south continue.
A meeting of senior officials from countries that backed South Korea in the Korean War begins today in Vancouver which will look at ways to better implement sanctions to push North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. China and Russia, which backed the North in the war but have since agreed to U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang, will not be attending the meeting.