Tillerson set to meet Trudeau for North Korea crisis talks: source

OTTAWA: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau next week for talks on how to address the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, an Ottawa source said on Monday.

Canada and the United States are due to co-host a meeting of foreign ministers in Vancouver in January to discuss North Korea.

North Korea has fired missiles over Japan as it pursues nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of UN sanctions. Last week it said U.S. and South Korean military drills meant the outbreak of war was “an established fact”.

During a day trip to Ottawa on Dec. 19 Tillerson will also meet Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, said the source, who requested anonymity because the meetings have not yet been formally announced.

A Canadian government source confirmed that Tillerson and Trudeau plan to meet but declined to give a precise date, saying scheduling issues still had to be worked out.

The US embassy in Ottawa declined to comment. Freeland said last month that the Vancouver talks would show the unity of the international community in applying pressure on Pyongyang.