Group of Seven lawmakers will meet Sunday in Toronto to discuss how to keep pressure on North Korea after the Hermit Kingdom announced it will suspend nuclear and long-range missile tests and plans to close its nuclear test site.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the suspension of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests went into effect last weekend, the Associated Press reported Friday. The announcement comes as G7 foreign affairs and security ministers prepare to convene this weekend in Toronto, where they will discuss their approach to North Korea ahead of two much-anticipated summits with leader Kim Jong-un.
Japan’s ambassador to Canada, Kimihiro Ishikane, said the G7 meeting comes at a “very sensitive time,” given the upcoming meetings with North Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to meet with Mr. Kim next week, to be followed by an unprecedented summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader in the coming months.
Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump are planning a summit meeting in the near future.Lucas Jackson/Reuters
“From that viewpoint, of course the G7 foreign ministers meeting will not be a place where we’ll be talking about details of the outcome of the summit meeting,” Mr. Ishikane said.
“We wish the seven foreign ministers will be sure of their solidarity in making clear that maximum pressure should be continued up until North Korea will show its determined position to go to denuclearization.”
CIA Director Mike Pompeo won’t be there to brief the foreign affairs and security ministers. A senior G7 source said Mr. Pompeo’s presence would have been beneficial, given his meeting with Mr. Kim in Pyongyang over the Easter weekend. The U.S. Department of State confirmed that Mr. Pompeo, who is in the midst of confirmation hearings to become the new U.S. secretary of state, will not attend the Toronto meeting.
A senior G7 source said Mr. Pompeo’s presence at the G7 meeting would have been beneficial, but noted that U.S. officials – led by acting secretary of state John Sullivan − will relay the details of his meeting with Mr. Kim.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Mr. Trump at the President’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, Fla., this week, where they discussed the upcoming meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim. Mr. Abe is seeking a denuclearization deal with North Korea that includes both long-range missiles and short-range ones, which could be used against Japan.
The Toronto meeting, which runs Sunday through Tuesday, will help outline priorities for the upcoming G7 leaders’ summit in Charlevoix, Que., this June, which Canada is hosting. The G7 consists of seven of the world’s advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States. The European Union also takes part in G7 meetings.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will host her G7 counterparts, as well as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, at her Toronto home Sunday, where they will discuss Russia and Ukraine over lunch.
That meeting will send a strong message to Russia, which has come under international scrutiny for its alleged involvement in an attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in March.
John Kirton, a University of Toronto expert on the G7, said Russia’s involvement in a number of global crises will be at the top of the ministerial agenda.
The U.S. State Department said Thursday that it has credible evidence that Russia and Syria are trying to “sanitize” the site of a suspected chemical weapon attack in Syria while denying international inspectors access to the area.
Last week, G7 leaders issued a statement condemning the April 7 attack in Eastern Ghouta and expressing support for the U.S.-led airstrikes that followed. Mr. Kirton said the statement was a “rare” move, last seen in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, numerous senior government sources said Canada will also expand the focus of the ministerial meeting to include Venezuela’s political and economic crisis and the displacement of more than 670,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
With files from Reuters