Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I wish to update the House on developments following North Korea’s underground nuclear test and its further threats and provocations. Though verification work is proceeding, Australia and the international community have little doubt that a nuclear test occurred on 25 May. Australia remains very gravely concerned by this development and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s subsequent missile tests, which have the potential to directly affect Australia’s national security. I repeat the Australian government’s view that this was an unacceptable, provocative and destabilising act by North Korea.

I note with concern reports that North Korea has issued statements to the effect that, following the Republic of Korea’s accession to the Proliferation Security Initiative, North Korea would ‘no longer be bound’ by the 1953 Korean War ‘Armistice Agreement’. While Australia does not propose to respond to every statement by North Korea, no matter how threatening or provocative, this statement is of course completely unjustified and unjustifiable on North Korea’s part. These statements and North Korea’s threats of military action do nothing to enhance its security and leave it increasingly isolated. Any act of aggression by North Korea would of course be a breach of the United Nations Charter.

Australia welcomes the Republic of Korea’s decision on 26 May to become a full member of the Proliferation Security Initiative, now composed of more than 90 nations. And Australia strongly supports the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea in working with the international community to respond to this major security threat. Australia reiterates its strong condemnation of North Korea’s actions, unanimously condemned by the United Nations Security Council. North Korea’s nuclear test is a clear breach of United Nations Security Council resolution 1718. It is in flagrant disregard of North Korea’s international obligations.

As I said to the House on Monday, there is only one option for North Korea: it should immediately desist from all of these provocative acts; it should immediately comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions, in particular resolution 1718; and it should immediately resume the six-party talks. Both the Prime Minister and I are consulting our counterparts on the international response. The Prime Minister has spoken to his Japanese and Republic of Korea counterparts, as well as to the United Nations Secretary-General.

I spoke on 26 May to United States Secretary of State Clinton to express Australia’s resolve to work with the United States to get North Korea to denuclearise and resume the six-party talks. I have also spoken to my South Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Yu, and I am scheduled to speak to Japan’s Foreign Minister Nakasone tomorrow. Australia will also continue to work with China and others to send a united message to North Korea over its provocative actions. At my instruction, Australia’s Mission to the United Nations is also working to encourage a strong new Security Council resolution with new and additional measures against North Korea. Work is proceeding at the United Nations and we expect a new resolution to emerge in the near future.

Australia already has strong sanctions in place against the North Korea, following North Korea’s 2006 nuclear test. Australia has fully implemented the sanctions under UN Security Council resolution 1718. The sanction regime requires:

• a ban on the supply to, and procurement from, North Korea of certain military items and associated training, advice and services;
• a ban on specified goods and related services with an application to the development of weapons of mass destruction and the means for their delivery; and
• a ban on the supply to North Korea of luxury goods.

In addition to fully implementing these sanctions, Australia has a visa ban that applies to North Korean nationals. North Korean flagged ships are banned from entering Australia and bilateral aid is suspended. Given the suffering of the North Korean people, Australia continues to provide emergency humanitarian aid through United Nations agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

North Korea’s recent actions—its nuclear test, further missile tests and threatening language—pose a very serious threat to regional and world security. Its actions have breached international norms of behaviour. To ignore North Korea’s behaviour would undermine the credibility of the United Nations. It would send the wrong signal to others about the international community’s steadfast commitment to preventing the further proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The international community has no option but to respond very firmly to North Korea’s actions. That is why Australia is calling for new, targeted sanctions to be imposed on North Korea and for the United Nations Security Council to work to ensure that United Nations members implement new sanctions together with full implementation of previous sanctions that have been imposed on North Korea, including through resolution 1718.

North Korea is a particularly complex international security problem. It is a closed society, one seemingly impervious to international community concerns or the desperate plight of its own people. We have, unfortunately, become accustomed to North Korea’s provocative, belligerent threats. The international community should not, of course, overreact. North Korea has engaged in this sort of brinkmanship before. It is in Australia and the international community’s interest to ensure that the door is left open for dialogue with North Korea. Australia is not starry-eyed about this, but the eventual resumption of dialogue is something we need to work towards. Australia will continue to support our key partners, including the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea, in their efforts to get North Korea back to the path of dialogue.

There is already a mechanism in place for dialogue with North Korea, a mechanism that is strongly supported by Australia and the international community. That mechanism, of course, is the six-party talks, involving the United States, China, Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and North Korea. This is the avenue for the North Korean regime to ensure its own security.

The only way to create better opportunities and to improve the lives of its starving population is by the regime in North Korea returning to conformity with United Nations Security Council resolutions, and by North Korea engaging in serious dialogue: North Korea needs to recommit to and implement the commitments towards denuclearisation that it has already made through the six-party talks. As the Prime Minister said yesterday, North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are an increasing threat to regional security and represent an emerging threat to Australia’s national security. Australia is determined to play its part at the United Nations with its friends and partners to respond to this major international security threat.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to speak for a period of seven minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Ms J Bishop speaking in reply to the ministerial statement for a period not exceeding 7 minutes.

Question agreed to.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a result of the extremely provocative acts of North Korea this week, there is now a new and disturbing security landscape in North-East Asia. The decision of the North Korean military regime to detonate a nuclear device earlier this week was particularly provocative after its test firing of a long-range missile in early April. It is deeply concerning to read reports that North Korea has raised the level of its rhetoric, saying it is no longer bound by the terms of the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953. North Korea has subsequently threatened a military strike against South Korea. It is also reported to have restarted its nuclear reprocessing plant to produce additional weapons grade plutonium and has fired numerous short-range missiles.

These actions represent a direct challenge to the authority of the United Nations. The ballistic missile and nuclear tests are a clear breach of United Nations Security Council resolution 1718 of 2006 which demands that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea not conduct any further nuclear test or launch any ballistic missile. The resolution was passed in response to North Korea’s first nuclear test in October 2006 and it was absolutely clear in its requirement that North Korea desist from any further development of nuclear weapons. The Security Council has previously described North Korea’s nuclear weapons program as having the potential to destabilise the region and beyond.

While the world is understandably focused on North Korea and the necessity for a multilateral response, our focus and support must also go to our close ally, Japan, and our strong strategic and trading partner, South Korea. Seoul is only 30 kilometres from the border with North Korea and would bear the brunt of any military outburst from the north, and there are still around 28,000 United States troops stationed in South Korea. This morning, the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command was placed on higher alert, and surveillance over North Korea is to be upgraded in response to the nuclear and missile tests and threats of war. Japan has been placed in an extraordinarily difficult security position by the actions of North Korea. It is bound by its longstanding interpretation of constitutional nonaggression: to only develop military defensive capability.  It is now forced to grapple with the consequences of North Korea actively pursuing nuclear weapons capability which may well mean a shift in Japan’s military stance.

Tokyo is planning a stronger quarantine strategy against North Korea to end all trade with that country. Seoul has joined the Proliferation Security Initiative, a US-led initiative with 90 member countries designed to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. For the people of democratic South Korea, North Korea’s bellicose talk of turning Seoul into a ‘sea of fire’ has meant a life forever on the edge, with the fear that the conventional threat posed by one of the highest concentrations anywhere in the world of artillery, rockets and missiles will one day be superseded by the threats of weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea’s delinquency is highlighted by the fact that this regime is responsible for the only two nuclear explosions in the 21st century. The North Korean investment involved in embarking on a nuclear weapons development program is immense and the impact on regional security and stability is profound. The costs imposed on the peoples of the Korean peninsula, in particular, have been cruel in the extreme. The diversion of North Korea’s meagre resources to the regime’s efforts to acquire this weapons technology has robbed a beleaguered people of their basic needs of decent food and decent shelter.

Australia has a direct stake in the de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula as a critical element in the interests of longer term peace and stability in our region. We do look to China as North Korea’s major trading partner but also as a responsible stakeholder in the region to bring maximum pressure to bear on the North Korean regime to comply with its international obligations—in particular, the unanimous call by the Security Council for North Korea to abide by resolution 1718.

It would be a mistake for these latest developments to simply be dismissed as a repeat of a familiar cycle of alarmist statements and threats. While there is an element of ‘Groundhog Day’ about North Korea’s behaviour—we have been down this path before; the threat-crisis-response cycle—it is important that the international community ensure that the military regime is not rewarded for its provocative behaviour. In the past there has been a carrot and stick approach to negotiating with North Korea. Provocative behaviour by North Korea has in the past been successful in eliciting concessions and incentives. In exchange for concessions, North Korea has repeatedly promised to halt development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. But North Korea has failed to honour these commitments in the past and cannot be trusted to honour future commitments.

The Security Council has said that it will work to develop a new, legally binding resolution with regard to North Korea. The coalition is of the view that all members of the international community should refocus efforts to enforce the provisions of resolution 1718—fully enforce the existing provisions. The calls for additional sanctions must consider past events in terms of the most effective approaches in dealing with North Korea. For example, the United States imposed strict financial sanctions in 2005 and targeted a bank in Macau—the Banco Delta Asia—that was alleged to have been involved in money laundering and other activities that supported the North Korean regime. The United States sanctions are reported to have effectively crippled that bank and brought pressure to bear on the regime. Many analysts have also pointed to the greater willingness of North Korea to resume the six-party talks in the wake of that action.

That raises the prospect that similar actions to limit North Korea’s access to finance through banking and corporate sanctions should be considered again, and the coalition would urge that the Security Council consider such sanctions. The coalition condemns the actions of North Korea. The coalition stands with our allies the United States, and Japan, with South Korea and with the international community, in finding a resolution that encourages the Security Council to develop a strong framework to deal with North Korea that includes further sanctions. The coalition calls for the full and proper enforcement of all sanctions currently contained in Security Council resolution 1718, and the coalition supports the call for the six-party talks to recommence to see if diplomatic engagement can divert this game of brinkmanship and diffuse the latest frightening scenario being played out on the Korean peninsula. (Time expired)