"The pressure campaign will continue until North Korea takes decisive steps to denuclearize," Tillerson said. "This is the strategy that has and will require patience."
The United States, Russia, China and the rest of the world does not recognize the DPRK as a nuclear power. This was stated on Tuesday by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a summit in Vancouver, chaired by Canada and the US, where the Foreign Ministers of 16 states will discuss the situation around the DPRK.
"We all must insist a full enforcement of UN Security Council Sanctions as this is the letter of the law. We especially urge China and Russia in this matter," Tillerson said.
READ MORE:'No Problem With That': Trump Ready for Talks With DPRK — Reports
The United States will keep using sanctions against North Korean entities and individuals as a punitive tactic in response to Pyongyang's provocations, Rex Tillerson added.
During the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said that the continued investment in nuclear weapons by North Korea will lead to more sanctions against that country.
"To North Korea’s leadership, our message is also clear: The pursuit of nuclearization will bring you neither security nor prosperity," Freeland said. "Investing in nuclear weapons will lead only to more sanctions and to perpetual instability on the peninsula."
The situation on the Korean peninsula worsened at the end of November 2017, when Pyongyang carried out its first rocket launch in two and a half months when it tested a new Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile. After the launch, the DPRK announced that the missile could carry a nuclear warhead, and that anywhere in the US territory was within its range.