Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister update the house on recent developments on the Korean Peninsula?

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Menzies for his question. Reports that North Korea has acquired the ability to develop a miniaturised nuclear device which could be placed on an intercontinental ballistic missile are deeply unsettling. We need to be clear that responsibility for the tension and instability arising from the Korean Peninsula lies at the feet of the regime in Pyongyang, whose actions contravene international laws and pose a serious threat to global peace, security and stability and the rules based order that we seek to promote and advocate.

North Korea has been in flagrant violation of six United Nations Security Council resolutions going back to 2006, which condemn its multiple missile launches and five nuclear tests, including an intercontinental ballistic missile test on 28 July. The country has a chequered history of making and breaking promises to wind back its illegal programs. Since taking power in December 2011, Kim Jong-un has accelerated the development of these programs.

If a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile is capable of reaching the United States, such a weapon is capable of reaching Australia, and it poses an unacceptable existential threat to our country. Australia's policy with respect to this challenge remains clear and consistent. Presently, North Korea is defiant. However, Pyongyang is deterrable if the international community is determined and resolute. The collective way forward is for all countries to fully implement the UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea. This includes Security Council resolution 2371, passed unanimously four days ago, which is the toughest and most comprehensive package of sanctions against Pyongyang to date. All nations, particularly those with a diplomatic or economic relationship with North Korea, must use their leverage to place pressure on Pyongyang to change North Korea's calculations. All nations, and critically the permanent five, must defend the authority of the UN Security Council. Australia is constantly reviewing and extending our autonomous sanctions regime to complement and augment Security Council sanctions and has so far designated 37 people and 31 entities.

The best prospect for stability on the Korean Peninsula and peaceful resolution to this challenge is for Pyongyang to abandon its illegal programs. This is also the best prospect for North Korea's impoverished people.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Briefly, I would like to associate the opposition with the remarks of the foreign minister. The opposition too recognises that the actions of the North Korean government are deeply destabilising. Whilst the development of shorter range missiles is more advanced than their longer range missiles, the opposition does not underestimate at all the seriousness of the threat that was outlined by the foreign minister. We are supportive of the approach and foreign policy in terms of the Korean Peninsula and North Korea outlined by the government. Labor does not regard the challenges of the Korean Peninsula as someone else's problem to be dealt with somewhere else. This is indeed a challenge to Australian stability and security.