US, Canada to hold global meeting after North Korean missile launch

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that the United States and Canada will co-host a meeting focused on finding a nonmilitary solution to the situation in North Korea after Pyongyang fired its latest ballistic missile.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the international meeting in a statement after the ballistic missile launch, saying that diplomatic options with North Korea “remain viable and open, for now.”

Tillerson said that Canada and the U.S. would convene a meeting of the United Nations Command that will include South Korea and Japan to discuss how the global community can counter North Korea’s “threat to international peace.”

The leaders will convene in Canada sometime early next year, though a date has not been set, according to The Canadian Press.

{mosads}

{mosads}

Such a meeting “hasn’t been done before,” one Canadian official told the news outlet. 

The conference had been under discussion for weeks between Tillerson and his Canadian counterpart, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. They officially announced it in a statement following the latest missile launch, which was fired at dawn local time in North Korea.

Defense Secretary James Mattis said the latest missile launch flew higher than any of North Korea’s previous attempts.

The missile was fired early Wednesday local time from an area north of Pyongyang and flew east before falling into the Sea of Japan.

President Trump said that the U.S. “will handle” the situation in North Korea, without offering details. Trump said his administration’s approach to North Korea has not changed.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced she will meet Wednesday with her counterparts from Japan and South Korea to further discuss the response to the missile launch.