Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Canada and the United States announced during Tillerson's December visit they will host a summit of foreign ministers to seek progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis. Photo: Reuters / Lars Hagberg
Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Canada and the United States announced during Tillerson's December visit they will host a summit of foreign ministers to seek progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis. Photo: Reuters / Lars Hagberg

Top officials from the US and about 20 other countries will meet in Vancouver, Canada on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of intercepting ships headed for North Korea.

Military website Defense One says the meeting is part of expanding efforts to pressure Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Canada and the US will serve as co-hosts of the meeting. The other attendees will be made up of nations that sent troops to the 1950-53 Korean War, including South Korea, Japan, Australia, India, Britain, and France. Neither China nor Russia will attend, though they will be given a readout of the discussion.

North Korea warned in December, that a naval blockade would be considered an “act of war.”

China has reportedly criticized the Vancouver meeting saying that further economic restrictions could plunge North Korea into chaos and create a huge refugee crisis.

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