Australia and Canada to send military aircraft to monitor North Korean ships

The surveillance planes will be based in the US military’s Kadena air base on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa.

It comes after North and South Korea pledged at a historic summit to work for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

Australia has also vowed to keep up economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: “We do have a P-8A surveillance aircraft that is going to be working in the region to monitor compliance with sanctions, and that is part of our collaboration with our partners in that exercise to enforce those UN sanctions.

“What has been occurring is that sanctions have been evaded by transferring materials from ship to ship… to add to the surveillance of the area enables that to be identified and then, of course, those who are a party to that to be held responsible and brought to account.”

Australia and Canada’s move to deploy patrol aircraft follows the arrival of a British warship in Japan to join efforts to police UN sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes.

In a statement, Japan said: “Japan welcomes these (surveillance) activities from the viewpoint of upholding the maximum pressure on North Korea while maintaining the solidarity of the international community.”

Donald Trump, who plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said he would maintain pressure on Pyongyang through sanctions that were imposed in a bid to rein in the North’s missile and nuclear programmes.

Officials in the US said in February that the Trump administration and key Asian allies were preparing to expand interceptions of ships suspected of violating the sanctions on North Korea.

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It is suspected the ships have been carrying banned weapons and components and other prohibited cargo to and from North Korea, flouting United Nations sanctions.