Lee urges Canadian support for denuclearization of N. Korea

(ATTN: UPDATES with details of foreign ministers' meeting at bottom)
SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Monday asked
Canada to actively support his country's efforts to denuclearize North Korea,
saying the international community must continue to implement U.N. sanctions
until the communist North expresses a clear and honest willingness to give up its
nuclear programs.
Lee made the remarks during his meeting with Canada's visiting foreign minister,
Lawrence Cannon, who arrived here Sunday on a three-day visit to set the agenda
for a South Korea-Canada summit to be held early next month.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit Korea Dec. 6-7.
"Prime Minister Harper is very anxious to come here and meet with you and he
recalled the excellent meeting he had with you in New York," Cannon told the
South Korean president.
Lee, in return, said the upcoming summit will be a chance to further improve the
special partnership that has been forged by the two countries.
The South Korean leader then asked for Canada's support for the denuclearization
of North Korea, noting the two Koreas are the only divided nations in the world.
Lee said it was important to strictly implement U.N. sanctions on the North to
help Pyongyang understand that the only way it will become a respected member of
the international community is to give up its nuclear ambitions.
The U.N. sanctions are enforced under a Security Council resolution that was
adopted shortly after the North conducted its second atomic test in May.
"President Lee also explained our proposal for a grand bargain with North Korea
for the resolution of the nuclear issue and asked for Canada's continued
support," Lee's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.
Cannon also held a meeting with Yu Myung-hwan, his South Korean counterpart,
where both sides agreed to further expand exchanges and cooperations in various
fields, notably in energy and resource development, the Foreign Ministry said in
a statement.
The top diplomats also agreed to further strengthen and upgrade the level of
cooperation in preparing for the Group of 20 (G-20) summits to be held in their
countries next year, it added.
Leaders of the G-20 countries agreed at their September summit in Pittsburgh to
meet again next year in Canada in June and in South Korea in November.
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