Japan, New Zealand pledge cooperation on halting illicit transfers by N. Korean vessels
Foreign ministers vow to work together to clamp down on Pyongyang’s efforts to evade sanctions targeting its nuclear weapons programme
Japan and New Zealand agreed on Monday to continue to cooperate on regional security issues, particularly through maritime surveillance of illegal North Korean ship-to-ship transfers.
Foreign Minister Taro Kono, together with his New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters, said the two countries reaffirmed their cooperation to achieve the concrete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, during their talks in the New Zealand capital of Wellington.
New Zealand and Australia said in September they were deploying patrol planes to Japan to assist with efforts to monitor illegal ship-to-ship transfers of goods by North Korean vessels.
Such transfers, which include refined petroleum, are used by Pyongyang to evade UN sanctions imposed on the country following a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
“Defending against ship-to-ship transfers from North Korea is vital to the enforcement of UN Security Council resolutions,” Kono said at a joint press conference following the foreign ministers’ talks. He also thanked New Zealand for its continued support on the matter.
Peters, who also serves as New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, said Wellington will also continue to cooperate with Japan on the issue of Chinese militarisation of the South China Sea to ensure peace and stability in “our part of the world.”
