The Vancouver meeting yesterday brought together countries that backed South Korea in the 1950-1953 Korean War, in which the communist North was backed by the Soviet Union and China.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday encouraged other nations to keep up a “maximum pressure” campaign on North Korea by ensuring the regime cannot sidestep tough economic sanctions.
Mr Tillerson also insisted there must be “new consequences whenever new aggression occurs” from Kim Jong-un’s regime.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang slammed the summit and said: “It has not the slightest legality and representativeness to speak of.
“It is the 21st century, and everyone is concerned about and working towards properly and peacefully resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.
“But some parties dusted off the Cold War term of ‘UN Command’ and covered a meeting where major parties to the Korean Peninsula nuclear are not represented.”
Moscow branded the meeting “destructive” and has expressed doubt over the US approach of punishing North Korea with sanctions.
Mr Kang’s mention of the “UN Command” referred to the US-controlled military coalition that protected South Korea from the communist North during the war.
The US was given a mandate to intervene in the conflict by the UN Security Council.
The UN Command then carried out an aerial bombing campaign throughout the three-year war which is said to have left much of North Korea destroyed.
The communist nation’s state-building mythology is believed to derive from the years it withstood attacks from the US.
It is reported the Vancouver meeting could therefore be perceived as a threat of war by North Korea.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland issued an indirect message to Pyongyang when she said: “The pursuit of nuclearlisation will bring you neither security nor prosperity.
“Investing in nuclear weapons will lead only to more sanctions and to perpetual instability on the peninsula.”
Mr Tillerson accused Russia and China of failing to properly implement UN-mandated sanctions.
He said: “We cannot abide lapses or sanctions evasions.
“We will continue to call attention to and designate entities and individuals complicit in such evasive actions.”
Moscow and Beijing believe both the US and North Korea should make concessions to deescalate the conflict.
The two nations want North Korea to agree to stop conducting missile tests, and the US to agree to stop military drills with South Korea on the country’s border.