Philippine Asian News Today Vol 19 No 17 | Page 3

September 1 - 15, 2017 PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY  YOU’RE READY You have energy, drive, and enthusiasm. We have training, support and a proven system to help you succeed as a Sun Life Financial advisor. We’re ready and waiting to meet you. This could be the start of something great! Criselda Flores Sales Manager 604-219-6886 [email protected] www.sunlife.ca/criselda.flores Mutual funds distributed by Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc. Sun Life Financial advisors are contracted with Sun Life Financial Distributors (Canada) Inc. registered in Quebec as a financial services firm. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada is a member of the Sun Life Financial group of companies. © Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, 2017. A2441-E-05-16 Canada, Philippines express concern over North Korea South Korea’s vice defense minister held talks on September 6 in the capital city of Seoul with his Canadian and Filipino counterparts to discuss close coordination over North Korea’s threats. Suh Choo-suk met separately with Jody Thomas, the Canadian senior associate defense minister, and Cardozo Luna, undersecretary of the Philippines’ Department of National Defense, on the sidelines of a security forum hosted by Seoul’s defense ministry. The ministry said that they expressed deep concerns about North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats and discussed how to respond to them amid heightened tensions following the North’s sixth nuclear test. Meanwhile, South Korea and Canada agreed to maintain efforts to boost defense cooperation as strategic partners, the ministry said. It also said that Seoul and Manila will continue working together in the defense field, with Seoul seeking to join the Philippine military’s modernization project. The Seoul Defense Dialogue (SDD) kicked off September 6 for a three- day run, bringing together more than 500 participants from 38 countries. In the U.S., President Donald Trump said that military action is not his “first choice” to address North Korea’s ongoing moves to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, hours after he spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said when asked if he was still considering military action. “Certainly that’s not a first choice, but we’ll see what happens.” Trump said that he believed he and Xi are on the same page following what he described as a “very, very frank and very strong phone call.” “We will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea. I believe that President Xi agrees with me 100%,” Trump said from the White House’s South Lawn as he prepared to board Marine One. China’s state media outlet, CCTV, said Wednesday that Xi expressed China’s commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and called for a peaceful settlement during their phone call earlier in the day. The phone call comes on the heels of Trump and his administration’s stern warnings to North Korea that furt her threats would be met with military force, including with a possible nuclear strike. Those warnings came after North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test. The U.S. has proposed a range of new sanctions against North Korea, WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM including an oil ban and a freeze on leader Kim Jong- un’s assets. It has drafted a United Nations resolution in response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test, which will be considered by members of the UN Security Council. The draft calls for bans on supplying a range of oil products to North Korea and purchasing its textile exports.