Canada, allies to discuss whether to start intercepting North Korean vessels
OTTAWA — Canada and its Korean War allies will sit down in Vancouver next week to mull ways to tighten the screws on North Korea — including whether to intercept North Korean shipping.
U.S. State Department officials confirmed that China and Russia were not invited to Tuesday’s meeting, which Canada is co-hosting with the U.S. in response to North Korea’s recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
Instead, only those countries that deployed troops as part of the United Nations during the Korean War between 1950 and 1953 have been invited to participate in the discussions, which China has blasted as “Cold War thinking.”
More than 25,000 Canadians served as part of UN Command during the war, of which 516 died. Canada was one of 17 countries to contribute troops to the UN force.