VANCOUVER: Japan and Canada agreed Monday that the international community needs to demonstrate solidarity to "maximise pressure" on North Korea through a foreign ministerial meeting Tuesday on addressing North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
The meeting will be attended by the foreign ministers and senior officials of countries that sent troops as part of the UN command during the Korean War, including Thailand, Australia, Britain, France and the Philippines.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland reached the agreement during talks in Vancouver, Canada, on the eve of the meeting that will bring together foreign ministers and senior officials from 20 countries, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
Later Monday, Kono joined a welcome dinner for the Vancouver Foreign Ministers' Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula to be co-hosted by Freeland and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Harjit Sajjan, Canada's minister of national defence, joined the dinner, a sign that a military option remains open to Washington in dealing with Pyongyang's aggressive weapons development.
Kono, Tillerson and Freeland had separate talks Monday evening with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha, apparently to coordinate their views and responses to North Korea, especially after it extended an olive branch to South Korea in the run-up to February's Winter Olympics.
In Tuesday's meeting, delegates will examine measures to stop North Korea from skirting sanctions as part of the US-led campaign to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions, according to a senior US official.
They will specifically discuss "maritime interdiction" to prevent smuggling that supports North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, Brian Hook, director of policy planning at the US Department of State, told journalists last week.
Kono will send a message in Vancouver that the international community will never recognise North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, and must impose "maximum pressure" through tightened sanctions on Pyongyang to compel it to alter its policy, according to Japanese Foreign Ministry officials.
The goal of Tuesday's meeting "is to provide practical mechanisms to exert continued pressure on the Kim regime while demonstrating that diplomatic options remain open and viable," Hook said, in reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who makes no secret of his determination to retain nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
Japan, South Korea, India and Sweden have also been invited.
The event, however, does not involve China -- a country that wields considerable influence on North Korea as its largest trading partner and a major oil supplier -- leading critics to question the effectiveness of the event.
China fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-1953 war.
Last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang criticised the Vancouver meeting, saying Beijing is against holding such a gathering at a time when it is more important to defuse tensions than step up pressure on North Korea.
China and Russia, which is also not attending, will be briefed on the meeting, according to US officials.
Separately, Tillerson, Kono and South Korean counterpart Kang will hold trilateral talks Tuesday, according to the State Department.