OTTAWA (Reuters) - An international meeting in Canada on North Korea in January is designed to produce “better ideas” to ease tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests, Canadian officials said on Wednesday. 
 
 A man looks at a street monitor showing a news report about North Korea's missile launch, in Tokyo, Japan, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai 
 
 A Canadian source who declined to be identified said that up to 16 foreign ministers were scheduled to meet in Vancouver, although North Korea itself will not be invited. Canada announced the meeting on Tuesday and said it would be co-hosted by the United States. 
 
 “By discussing the various options out on the table, by listening to ... local wisdom of the regions and especially (to those) who live a bit closer to Korea than we do, you can come up with some better ideas,” Andrew Leslie, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, told reporters. 
 
 Early on Wednesday, North Korea tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile yet, putting the continental United States within range and increasing pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to deal with the nuclear-armed nation. 
 
 Freeland later told reporters that Japan, South Korea and China would be among those invited to the meeting. 
 
 “It’s an important step in terms of showing the unity of the international community in applying pressure on North Korea,” she said, sidestepping a question about whether Trump might do something to upset the talks. 
 
 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who came to power in 2015 promising the world that “Canada is back”, last week said he had discussed with Cuban President Raul Castro in 2016 the possibility of working together to address the crisis. 
 
 “These are the kinds of things where Canada can, I think, play a role that the United States has chosen not to play, this past year,” Trudeau said, referring to Trump’s isolationist global stance. 
 
 Defense experts say North Korean missiles aimed at the United States could land off course in Canada. 
 
 Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan told reporters Canada was looking at the threat extremely seriously but declined to say what military counter measures he might be take. 
 
 “We believe the diplomatic solution is the way to go - we feel there is hope for it,” Sajjan said. 
 
 In the meantime, Canada’s relations with North Korea appear to be warming up slightly. 
 
 In September, a Canadian diplomat said the North Koreans “perceive us as not an enemy and therefore potentially a friend”. Canada established diplomatic relations with North Korea in 2001 but suspended them in 2010. ||||| They are nightmare scenarios ripped straight out of Hollywood thrillers. 
 
 But rising global tension, notably over North Korea, has prompted federal officials to review and in some cases revise a series of critical contingency plans, including one that involves the evacuation of the federal cabinet to a secure military base outside of Ottawa. 
 
 The Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic wing of the Prime Minister's Office, drafted an agreement with National Defence a year ago to open up bunkers on two military bases should the National Capital Region become "unviable," according to documents obtained by CBC News under access to information legislation. 
 
 Each location is classified in the heavily redacted briefing dated Aug. 2, 2016, and only referred to as "Alpha and Bravo sites." 
 
 The agreement is part of the federal government's overall plan for the "Continuity of Constitutional Government," which aims to "ensure minimal or no interruption to the availability of critical services" during an emergency or natural disaster in Ottawa. 
 
 Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland joins Chris Hall to discuss Canada’s role in addressing the North Korea nuclear crisis. 8:11 
 
 The federal government has long had contingency plans, known internally as CONPLANS, for a variety of emergencies running the gamut between earthquakes and floods through terrorism to full-scale war. 
 
 What is different lately, according to experts, is that officials are being forced to think more often in Cold War terms, particularly when it comes to the threat of a North Korean missile striking Canada, either as an accident or by design. 
 
 On Tuesday, Pyongyang tested the Hwasong-15 intercontinental missile, which the regime of Kim Jong-un claims can be tipped with a "super-large heavy warhead" and is capable of striking anywhere on the continental United States. 
 
 Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was asked Wednesday what would happen should a missile land in Canada. 
 
 "When it comes to any type of foreign threats, we take them extremely seriously," he said. "We've been looking at North Korea right from the beginning when I was given this portfolio. I am very mindful of the country's missile testing that they have been doing. We believe that the diplomatic solution is the way to go, because I think that there is hope for it." 
 
 The notion that Canada could be hit by incoming missiles was part of the Cold War defence mindset and planning, which disappeared in the early 1990s, said Andrew Rasiulis, a defence expert with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. 
 
 "After the Cold War was over, we stopped thinking about those things. It fell off the radar, so to speak," said Rasiulis, a former senior official at National Defence who once ran the Directorate of Nuclear and Arms Control Policy. "At the time, it was really a whole cultural shift." 
 
 Cold War legacy 
 
 At the height of the standoff with the former Soviet Union, the Canadian military had a series of bunkers to which the federal cabinet could retreat, including the so-called Diefenbunker, near Carp, Ont. 
 
 There was also the deep underground complex at Canadian Forces Base North Bay and another centre at the now-decommissioned military base in Calgary. 
 
 Rasiulis said a whole generation of public servants have not had to think in those cataclysmic terms and had not even begun to consider it as late as 2014 when he retired. 
 
 And that's why he considers the revision of continuity of government plan so significant. But Rasiulis said he considers the likelihood of Canada being struck by a North Korean missile to be low. 
 
 The thinking, however, over the last generation was, if there was thought of a nuclear event, it would be a terrorist dirty bomb, not a missile or missiles that could wipe out entire cities and result in tens of thousands of casualties. 
 
 Although on the surface they may not seem related, Rasiulis said the Russian annexation of Crimea and the lone-wolf, ISIS-inspired terrorist attack on Parliament Hill, both of which occurred three years ago, appear to have convinced officials that the capital was vulnerable. 
 
 The main tunnel to the so-called Diefenbunker in Carp, Ont. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press) 
 
 Sean Maloney, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and a Cold War expert, said he believes the issue is bigger than just whether there are contingency plans to keep the government operating. He questions what sort of civil preparedness is going on. 
 
 A nuclear blast brings with it an electromagnetic pulse that would fry power grids over a much wider area than just the radius of the blast. That, in turn, would take down not only businesses but public infrastructure, such as water and sewage plants. 
 
 "That is just the start of the problem," said Maloney. "People have not thought that through and they don't want to discuss it because it's too overwhelming for them." 
 
 He said during the Cold War, there was also a sense of "lethargy" because people were resigned to the fact that once the missiles started flying everything would be over. 
 
 Maintaining the power elite 
 
 Maloney wrote a paper in the late 1990s about the federal government's contingency plans in the event of a thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union. 
 
 It was entitled Dr. Strangelove Visits Canada, referring to the 1960s Stanley Kubrick comedy about what could happen if the wrong person pushed the wrong button. 
 
 Some of the issues raised in his paper could find new life in this new era of uncertainty. 
 
 "Critics of civil defence programs argued that protecting government leaders in shelters and not providing similar facilities to the population as a whole was 'undemocratic,' [and] designed to maintain the power elite," said Maloney who added the current plan to reconstitute the government "sounds very 1950s." 
 
 The government of former prime minister John Diefenbaker conducted the first large-scale training exercise for its contingency plan to evacuate Ottawa in December 1959. 
 
 It saw one North Star transport plane and one Labrador helicopter put on 30-minute standby to evacuate senior government ministers and officials from the east side of the lawn on Parliament Hill to the air base in nearby Rockcliffe. 
 
 Other officials were to have been transported by bus out of the city. ||||| The guest list isn’t firmed up, the date and location are still to be determined. 
 
 But, the government is billing a major international meeting it will host on the North Korea nuclear crisis as an essential, overdue step towards bringing key players together to brainstorm a non-military solution. 
 
 WATCH: South Korea conducts missile drills following North Korea’s missile launch 
 
 As to what that solution might be – nothing firm. The meeting will likely occur somewhere in Canada, sometime early next year. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have been discussing plans for the meeting for months. But they chose to announce it late Tuesday after North Korea carried out its longest-ever missile test. 
 
 READ MORE: Canada, U.S. to co-host summit to discuss diplomatic response to North Korea threat 
 
 Freeland couldn’t say what Canada’s specific role would be but she said convening the meeting was an important step “in terms of showing the unity of the international community in applying pressure on North Korea.” 
 
 Canada offers what amounts to a less stressful setting for the talks, a senior government official said Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. 
 
 READ MORE: North Korea says newly-tested ICBM is capable of reaching entire U.S. mainland 
 
 “It makes sense we could bring together people that may not necessarily feel that they would want to go to the United States,” the source said, adding that holding talks in Japan or South Korea is simply too close to the crisis. 
 
 Tillerson saw the value in Canada taking the initiative forward, the source said. 
 
 WATCH: North Korea says latest missile test is capable of reaching U.S. mainland 
 
 “We have a lot of strong connections to countries in the region that could potentially be affected and are affected by this threat every day,” said the official. Canada has a history in the region, where it fought in the 1950-53 Korean War, but it is also a non-nuclear power. 
 
 Freeland said her Chinese counterpart would be among the invitees. The meeting, which will be co-hosted by the United States, will potentially involve the foreign ministers of close to two dozen countries. 
 
 WATCH: North Korea latest ballistic missile launch travels over 1000 KM 
 
 China and Russia are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, which held an emergency meeting about North Korea on Wednesday, amid wider calls for more sanctions against the country. 
 
 Canadian officials had no comment on whether Russia would be receiving an invitation. Moscow denounced the latest North Korean test as a provocation that would hurt the chances of finding a political solution. 
 
 READ MORE: North Korea building nukes ‘faster than expected,’ may announce completion within a year, South says 
 
 Canada has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has raised questions whether it has any meaningful contribution to make. 
 
 “We’ve not been seen as an interlocutor on North Korea,” said David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China. 
 
 “One of the problems with diplomatic isolation is we tend to be a long way from understanding or having insights we can bring to the table.” 
 
 READ MORE: Japan government on alert after radio signals suggest North Korea missile launch 
 
 But he added: “It is useful to remind people that we share values and security interests with the United States.” Freeland isn’t travelling with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to China next week, so officials don’t expect the North Korea summit to be a major topic of discussion. 
 
 However, Freeland said she discussed the planned meeting in great detail with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the recent APEC summit in Vietnam, and has been shopping it around to other key countries. 
 
 WATCH: Trump on latest North Korea launch: We will handle it 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump spoke Wednesday with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping and “emphasized the need for China to use all available levers to convince North Korea to end its provocations and return to the path of denuclearization,” according to a White House statement. 
 
 Andrew Leslie, Freeland’s parliamentary secretary, said the countries that fought alongside Canada during the 1950-53 conflict are on the potential guest list. 
 
 “By presenting a united front, by discussing the various options out on the table, by listening to the wisdom, the local wisdom of the regions and especially who live a bit closer to Korea than we do, you can come up with some better ideas,” Leslie said. 
 
 WATCH: Trudeau says Canada engaged in North Korea, calls regime ‘particular and challenging’ 
 
 A recent analysis by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations posited one possible scenario that the world community could adopt to curb the nuclear ambitions of Kim Jong Un’s regime. Canada wasn’t mentioned. 
 
 Five key countries – the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia – need to strike a “grand bargain” that satisfies their individual interests in the region, wrote Patricia Kim, the council’s Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow in a blog post earlier this month. 
 
 READ MORE: South Korea reportedly using loudspeakers to broadcast news of North Korean defector across border 
 
 All countries, especially China, need assurances “that joining Washington to pressure North Korea, even at the risk of the Kim regime’s collapse, will not sway the regional balance of power in a manner that undercuts any one state’s fundamental interests,” she wrote. 
 
 They also need to send a firm message to North Korea “that it can no longer rely on the strategic gaps between its neighbours” to pursue both nuclear weapons and economic development.
– It's not just Hawaii that's prepared for a nuclear attack by North Korea. America's neighbor to the north has set aside two classified bunkers, including one to be used by members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Cabinet, in case Canadian officials get an evacuation order or otherwise find Ottawa to be "unviable," according to documents obtained by CBC News. The sites aren't identified in the August 2016 documents, which make up part of the government's emergency contingency plans, but they're described as being on military bases. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan says he's "very mindful" of North Korea's nuclear program and takes such threats "extremely seriously," particularly as experts suggest Canada could be hit by a missile aimed at the US. But Sajjan maintains a diplomatic solution is possible. Canada could play a key role in that regard: Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Vancouver will host an international meeting on North Korea in January, reports Reuters, noting Japan, China, and South Korea will be invited. As many as two dozen countries may attend, reports Global News, citing a government source who describes the location as neutral, given that Canada is a non-nuclear power. "These are the kinds of things where Canada can, I think, play a role that the United States has chosen not to play this past year," Trudeau said last week when asked about Canada's push for international cooperation to address the crisis. The US, however, will co-host the meeting, designed to show "the unity of the international community in applying pressure on North Korea," Freeland says.