Havana,
\nCuba\u2019s foreign minister and his North Korean counterpart rejected the United States\u2019 \u201cunilateral and arbitrary\u201d demands on Wednesday while expressing concern about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, the ministry said.<\/p>\n
North Korea is searching for support amid unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs, which it carries out in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.<\/p>\n
The country, which has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the US mainland, has maintained warm political relations with Cuba since 1960, despite the island\u2019s opposition to nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
Some diplomats said Cuba was also one of the few countries that might be able to convince North Korea to move away from the current showdown with the United States that threatens war.<\/p>\n
The ministers, meeting in Havana, called for \u201crespect for peoples\u2019 sovereignty\u201d and \u201cthe peaceful settlement of disputes,\u201d according to a statement released by the Cuban foreign ministry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey strongly rejected the unilateral and arbitrary lists and designations established by the US government which serve as a basis for the implementation of coercive measures which are contrary to international law,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has also increased pressure on Cuba since taking office, rolling back a fragile detente begun by predecessor Barack Obama and returning to the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War.<\/p>\n
A US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the United States had made clear it wanted a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe DPRK\u2019s belligerent and provocative behavior demonstrates it has no interest in working toward a peaceful solution,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n
DPRK stands for North Korea\u2019s official name, the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n
Cuba said in the statement the Cuban and North Korean foreign ministers had \u201cexpressed concern about the escalation of tensions\u201d on the Korean peninsula.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ministers discussed the respective efforts carried out in the construction of socialism according to the realities inherent to their respective countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuba and North Korea are the last in the world to maintain Soviet-style command economies, though under President Raul Castro, the Caribbean nation has taken some small steps toward the more market-oriented communism of China and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Cuba maintains an embassy in North Korea, but publicly trades almost exclusively with the South. Last year, trade with the latter was $67 million and with the North just $9 million, according to the Cuban government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Havana, Cuba\u2019s foreign minister and his North Korean counterpart rejected the United States\u2019 \u201cunilateral and arbitrary\u201d demands on Wednesday while expressing concern about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, the ministry said. North Korea is searching for support amid unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10973,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971\/revisions\/10973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}