Canada - a new factor in the North Korea issue

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will co-chair a conference on North Korea in Vancouver (Canadian Press).

This meeting is of particular interest because it is the first time Canada has taken an active mediating role in one of the world's most intractable hot spots.

The Return of Canada

Canada announced it would host an international conference on North Korea nearly a month ago, at a time when the North Korean issue was at a near standstill. Emergency meetings between the parties involved continued, followed by increasingly harsh sanctions against North Korea.

However, North Korea's nuclear and missile tests continue to occur more frequently with increasingly improved technical capabilities, capable of reaching the entire US territory.

Analysts say North Korea is willing to accept a life of hardship in exchange for the ability to master technology in the nuclear and missile fields.

Therefore, there are many skeptical opinions about Canada's participation in the North Korea issue - a country that has been almost absent from the North Korea issue for many years.

Canada established diplomatic relations with North Korea in 2001 to support the “Sunshine Policy” of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. Since 2010, Canada has largely stayed out of the country’s nuclear issue after former Prime Minister Stephen Harper adopted a “disengagement control” policy on North Korea.

Canada’s lack of involvement in the North Korean issue is an advantage for it to play a mediating role. With stable trade relations with several countries in the region and virtually no military presence, Canada does not have a direct stake in the North Korean issue like the United States, Japan, South Korea or China.

Therefore, the current time is considered favorable for Canada to return to the "North Korea dossier", with the desire to create a bridge for relevant parties, aiming to find a solution for the Korean peninsula based on international rules and laws.

Towards a diplomatic solution

At this meeting in Vancouver, diplomats are expected to seek solutions to put more pressure on North Korea to force it back to the negotiating table.

Although this is not a new approach, Canada believes that the most important thing is to create consensus in the international community in implementing sanctions, so that solutions to put pressure on North Korea can be effective.

Current reality shows that the UN sanctions against North Korea still have many loopholes, while the US's unilateral sanctions against North Korea as well as Chinese enterprises doing business with North Korea have had almost no impact on the progress of the country's missile and nuclear programs.

Vancouver conference will target secret ships trading with North Korea (Getty)

Therefore, one of the main contents of this conference is to consider blocking cargo ships to and from North Korea, blocking sea routes that some ships still use to secretly trade with this country.

Diplomats say North Korea has always shown resilience in the face of international sanctions, but intelligence reports show the country's economy is struggling.

Even North Korea’s agreement to resume dialogue with South Korea in the early days of 2018 is believed to be due to the need for North Korea to find a way out of its current situation, especially as the harshest part of winter approaches. This is a good opportunity for the parties to promote solutions to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.

Analysts have repeatedly stated that no matter how the situation on the Korean peninsula develops, a diplomatic solution through negotiations remains the only viable option.

However, there are still many skeptics about the outcome of this conference in Vancouver when Russia and China were not invited to attend. Up to this point, Canada has not had any explanation as to why two countries that play a very important role in the North Korea issue - especially China - were not on the guest list.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have also noticed this inadequacy, so two days before the conference took place, he pledged to continue dialogue with all parties, including Russia and China, and called on these two countries to help ease current tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Message to the White House

As representatives of 16 countries gather in Vancouver to seek diplomatic solutions, the message they want to convey is aimed not only at North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but also at the White House, even though the United States is co-hosting the conference.

Leading the US delegation to this conference is Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has always been a "peacemaker" in the administration of President Donald Trump.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has publicly supported the resumption of negotiations between the US and North Korea, but his messages have often been "interfered" by conflicting statements from US President Donald Trump himself as well as some other members of the government.

The Vancouver conference also aims to send a message to President Donald Trump about moving towards a diplomatic solution to the North Korea issue (Getty).

For example, last December, when Mr. Tillerson proposed to conduct a dialogue without preconditions with North Korea, the White House immediately issued a statement saying that it was "not ready for dialogue due to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons tests."

Therefore, a united international front towards a diplomatic solution will be the basis for the US Secretary of State to overcome internal disagreements to promote solutions within the US government on the North Korea issue.

When he took office as Prime Minister of Canada in 2015, Justin Trudeau sent the message to the international community that “Canada is back.”

And there would be no more eloquent proof of this message if Canada could “make things happen” on the North Korean nuclear issue. Of course, Mr. Justin Trudeau is not “delusional” enough to expect any breakthrough after this summit in Vancouver.