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Peace talks for the Korean Peninsula between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung-un are set to resume next week in Vietnam. This second Trump-Kim summit represents a critical window for progress towards peace. The international community, including Canada, should be fully engaged with both Koreas to ensure that peace is made.

Coincidently, it was 18 years ago this February that Canada first established formal diplomatic relations with North Korea. Canada chose to do so in support of South Korea’s then-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae-jung’s policy of engagement with North Korea around issues of food security, human rights, denuclearization and regional stability.

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Canada was right to engage with North Korea then. And it should engage with North Korea now. Unfortunately, since 2010, that engagement has turned from “active” to “controlled.” This has meant almost no engagement at all, except for the occasional verbal condemnation of North Korea’s nuclear weapons’ testing and Canada’s participation in sanctions that have had little to no political impact. In fact, these sanctions have only served to further harm women and children by limiting North Korea’s access to medicine and food.