Seoul: The leaders of South Korea and Canada say they will strengthen their security and economic cooperation to address challenges posed by North Korea and expand Canadian supplies of minerals crucial to South Korea’s technology industry.
The meeting on Wednesday in Seoul between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came before they travel to Japan for this weekend’s Group of Seven summit, where discussions are expected to focus on geopolitical uncertainties worsened by Russia’s war on Ukraine, China’s regional assertiveness and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
In a joint statement issued after their meeting, the two leaders condemned North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme and urged Pyongyang to return to US-led denuclearization talks, which have been stalled since 2019 over disagreements related to international sanctions imposed on the North.
Yoon and Trudeau expressed concern over North Korea’s human rights violations and “the regime’s complete disregard for the wellbeing of its people”. They said their governments would try to improve international awareness about the issue.
“We will also be continuing our work to support human rights organizations” focused on advancing North Korean human rights, Trudeau said in a joint news conference with Yoon.
“North Korean people are the first victims of the terrible regime in North Korea, an example of why autocracy has terrible, terrible impacts on its own people first and foremost before [it] even destabilizes and puts at risk people in neighboring countries,” Trudeau said.
The leaders signed a memorandum of understanding on critical mineral supply chains, a clean energy transition and energy security, which they said would help position the countries as “globally competitive players in areas including batteries and zero-emission vehicles”. –Agencies
