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U.S, North Korea tensions continue

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The United States has warned North Korea it will pursue a military option if Pyongyang fails to engage in discussions. The warning comes after a meeting between the U.S. and Canada, which China says was one that displayed a Cold War mentality.

Tension between the U.S and Korea continues with both countries sounding threats against each other.

Now the U.S. has warned of a military option.  U.S Secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, says: “If North Korea does not choose the pathway of engagement, discussion, negotiation, then they themselves will trigger an option.”

It’s a strong message from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Pyongyan, at a meeting in Vancouver where 20 nations gathered to talk about the regime’s weapons program and enforce tougher sanctions against the North.

Both China and Russia were not at the meeting and diplomats say any agreements made in Vancouver are limited at best.

The meeting also comes as the two Koreas sit down for their first talks after two years of soaring tensions, but across the globe warnings that the world shouldn’t be fooled by Pyongyang playing nice.

Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono, says: “It is not the time to ease pressure or reward North Korea.”

The majority of nations in Vancouver supported South Korea during the Korean War and the North’s allies, China and Russia, have slammed the meeting calling it an example of what they refer to as “Cold War”-era thinking.

China’s foreign ministry, Lu Kang, elaborates: “This can only create divisions within the international community and damage the joint efforts made to promote a proper settlement to the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula. The main channel to handle and resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula should still be the framework of six-party talks and the United Nations Security Council and also because of this, this meeting’s legitimacy and representativeness was in doubt from the beginning by the international community.”

Twenty nations agreed to consider tougher sanctions to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, but the country has refused to give up the development of nuclear missiles in spite of increasingly severe U.N. sanctions, raising fears of escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.

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