Vancouver meeting on Korean Peninsula nuclear issue set to kick off

VANCOUVER, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Top diplomats of Canada and the United States will co-host an official dinner here Monday welcoming foreign ministers and senior officials representing 20 nations that fought alongside the United States during the 1950-53 Korean War.

They will gather for a meeting intended to discuss the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, according to Canada's Department of Global Affairs.

Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and her U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, announced in December that they will jointly host the meeting on Jan. 16.

The Vancouver meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and will discuss measures to exert maximum diplomatic as well as economic pressures on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) so as to force it to end its nuclear and missile programs.

Canadian Minister of National Defense Harjit Singh Sajjan and United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis will also attend the one-day meeting.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that would not help because it didn't include key parties involved in the issue and could harm joint efforts to improve the situation on the Korean peninsula. China and Russia, two parties in the suspended six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, won't attend the meeting. Enditem