North Korea sanctions not on agenda for Japan’s foreign minister Taro Kono during Hong Kong visit

Source tells the Post that city's Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor took item off the table for their official meeting on Sunday

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Japan’s foreign minister Taro Kono. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:32am, 24 Mar 2018Updated: 12:08pm, 24 Mar 2018

Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono begins a two-day visit to Hong Kong on Saturday, but North Korean sanctions will not be on the agenda for discussion after the city’s leader rejected the idea, according to a source.

Kono had intended to discuss the city’s implementation of sanctions imposed on North Korea, including ways of stepping up inspection of ships, among other issues, but the Hong Kong government source told the Post that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had taken it off the table for their official meeting on Sunday.

Under the “one country, two systems” policy, Hong Kong relies on Beijing to handle matters of diplomacy and foreign affairs.

Abe’s nuclear disaster: why has Japan been shut out of North Korea talks?

At the end of last month, the Japanese government published new evidence of North Korean vessels engaged in ship-to-ship transfers on the high seas, a violation of a United Nations Security Council ban. Photographs showed a vessel flying a Maldives flag – but owned by a Hong Kong company – transferring what was believed to be oil to a North Korean ship.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported this week that Kono would visit the city to discuss the enforcement of sanctions on Pyongyang, ahead of a North-South summit next month and US President Donald Trump’s possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sometime before the end of May.

“North Korea won’t be on the agenda. It’s a foreign relations issue. They know that we won’t discuss this,” the source said.

It is understood the agreed agenda will focus on other economic and trade issues, while Kono is also expected to ask the city’s government to lift restrictions on Japanese food imports imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

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