WASHINGTON-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told US diplomats Wednesday that despite frayed relations, the USA would try to work with Russian Federation to resolve the Syria conflict, and said the USA was "leaning hard" on China to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program.
Tillerson delivered the message - aimed at China, which has reclaimed thousands of acres of land in the South China Sea in recent years - during a lunch Thursday with ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Washington.
One topic that featured dominantly in the talks between Mr Tillerson and his Asean counterparts was the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where China's rapid island reclamation activities and construction of military facilities have heightened concerns of militarisation of the strategic waterway.
Mr Lee Sung Yoon, professor of Korean Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, told ST: "There is a real need to re-engage South-east Asian countries on the North Korea issue in a constructive way".
The newspaper quotes a spokesman for the State Department's East Asia and Pacific office as saying Washington wants countries to "suspend or downgrade diplomatic relations" with the North and take steps to "isolate the regime financially". Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry said Wednesday that Beijing will implement additional sanctions, as outlined in UN Security Council resolution 2321.
"We think that more can be done, not just in Southeast Asia", he said.
The special meeting was arranged after Secretary Tillerson received a request from ASEAN foreign ministers, who offered to travel to Washington to see him prior to the planned multilateral meetings scheduled to take place in August in the Philippines.
Singapore's foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, said sanctions would have to be fully implemented, but North Korea's presence in his country is already minimal.
China New Silk Road Investments Surprisingly Weak Before This Week's Summit
He will attend the inaugural session of the summit and the plenary meeting of the high-level dialogue and the state banquet. Chinese media coverage of the two-day Belt and Road Forum, due to kick off on Sunday, has been relentlessly upbeat.
He defended the US strategy to isolate nuclear-armed North Korea, but said conditions are not yet right for a meeting with dictator Kim Jong Un.
The Trump administration wants Southeast Asian countries to crack down on money laundering and smuggling involving North Korea and restrict legal business too, US officials said.
Considering the vast majority of North Korea's trade is with China, its long-time ally, these secondary sanctions would most likely be on Chinese firms.
"We are preparing additional sanctions if it turns out North Korea's actions warrant additional sanctions", he said.
And he cited as an example the murder with a nerve agent in February of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's brother Kim Jong-Nam in a Malaysian airport.
This stance coincided with moves by China and ASEAN to draft a framework to negotiate a code of conduct. Murphy said such operations would continue, but declined to say when the next might occur.
Tillerson also said that the U.S. was ready to engage in talks with North Korea "when conditions are right", adding that Washington was sending a "very, very clear and resolute" message that the country's security and economic prosperity "can only be secured" through commitment to denuclearization, Xinhua news agency reported.
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