Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) strongly condemns the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for:

(a) ongoing development and testing of illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programs including intercontinental ballistic missile tests in June and July 2017;

(b) destabilising the Korean peninsula and Asia-Pacific region more widely through aggressive acts and rhetoric particularly against South Korea, Japan, the United States and Australia; and

(c) significant and ongoing human rights abuses committed against the people of North Korea;

(2) acknowledges the actions of the Australian Government in maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on the DPRK including through:

(a) co-sponsoring United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2321, placing additional United Nations sanctions on the DPRK;

(b) co-sponsoring UNSC Resolution 2270, condemning North Korea's nuclear test and long-range ballistic missile launch in 2016; and

(c) imposing financial sanctions and travel bans on five North Korean individuals for their association with North Korean weapons of mass destruction or missile program in June 2017;

(3) calls upon the DPRK to:

(a) abandon its missile and nuclear program;

(b) use the resources spent on its nuclear and missile programs to improve the livelihood of its citizens and implement policies for economic development to better the situation for the North Korean people;

(c) adhere to multiple UNSC resolutions; and

(d) re-join the international community and contribute to peace and stability in the region, rather than deepening tensions and the insecurity of other states; and

(4) acknowledges China's position of influence in relation to the DPRK and encourages China to:

(a) pressure the DPRK to adhere to international agreements;

(b) continue to engage with the international community to decrease tensions on the Korean peninsula; and

(c) begin constructive talks to permanently dismantle the DPRK's nuclear capabilities.

The government of North Korea stands condemned for repeatedly flouting the UN Security Council resolutions since the 1990s, which called on North Korea to stop developing and testing illegal ballistic and nuclear weapons. Since its establishment in the 1940s, North Korea has proved itself to be a bad international citizen, more content to be a rogue state than a participant in the rules based international order. In June and July, North Korea tested intercontinental ballistic missiles that appear capable of hitting a number of countries, including South Korea, Japan, the United States and Australia. Last week, there were reports that North Korea had developed a miniaturised nuclear device which could be placed on such a missile, and, in recent days, North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, threatened Guam. As a potential target of direct nuclear missile attack, and as a country with a substantial and successful Korean diaspora, including in my electorate, these concerning actions of North Korea are of vital interest to Australia.

On 5 August, the UN Security Council passed resolution 2371, a unanimous resolution comprising the toughest and most comprehensive package of sanctions against North Korea. Among other things, this resolution provides the toughest economic sanctions on North Korea and implements a full ban on North Korea's export of coal, iron, lead and seafood. All nations must defend the resolutions of the UN Security Council. China is close to North Korea and is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a nation with growing economic, diplomatic, and military capability. China has an important role to play by demonstrating to North Korea that there are serious consequences of repeatedly flouting UN Security Council resolutions.

I'm proud of the key role that Australia has repeatedly played in maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea, with the aim of encouraging North Korea to cease its weapons program. While a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Australia cosponsored resolutions proposing sanctions and condemning North Korea's long-range ballistic missile testing. In addition, Australia imposed its own sanctions on individuals associated with the North Korean weapons program. As the foreign minister told the House last week:

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.

Australia plays a leadership role on global policy towards North Korea. North Korea is one of the world's worst human rights abusers. It was a distinguished Australian jurist, Michael Kirby, who headed up a Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which reported in 2014. That commission found widespread and systemic discrimination against women, against Christians—who once made up a quarter of the population and now make up less than one per cent, against the children of mixed race couples and against political dissidents. The North Korean regime practices mind control and the suppression of thought, speech and religion. People are labelled at their birth in a caste system, in accordance with their support for the regime as 'core', 'wavering' or 'hostile'. On this basis, they're allocated food, housing, education, employment and other political opportunities. Eighty thousand to 120,000 people are imprisoned without trial in prison camps in North Korea, where torture is a standard practice. Twenty-seven per cent of babies born in North Korea are seriously stunted as a result of malnourishment of their mothers during gestation. Under North Korea notions of racial purity, the commission heard the story of a mixed-race baby born to a Chinese father and a North Korean mother, where the mother was required to drown her child in a bucket. The commission heard from a witness who worked in a political prison who was required to dispose of emaciated bodies of political prisoners by burning them in a vat and using the ashes and the body parts as fertilizer.

The commission found that, while North Korea can find the funds to maintain the fourth largest army on the planet, it struggles to feed its population. In the great famine in the 1990s, when military spending was increasing, in a population of 23 million, more than one million people died from starvation. North Korea's belligerent response to the commission of inquiry was to describe the report as a pack of lies, based on the testimony of human scum.

In conclusion, North Korea must immediately abandon its missile and nuclear programs. It must use the resources spent on its nuclear and missile programs to improve the livelihood of its citizens. It must respect the human rights of its people. It must adhere to UN Security Council resolutions, rejoin the international community and contribute to peace and stability in the region, rather than deepening tensions and insecurity in other states. 'Han Ban Do Pyung Hwa Rel Ki wan Hap Ni Da'—I wish for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. I commend the motion to the House.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to commend the motion raised by the member for Berowra, which condemns the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, otherwise known as North Korea, for the ongoing development and testing of illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including intercontinental ballistic missile tests in June and July 2017. I'm also deeply concerned by reports from US intelligence analysts that have assessed that North Korea has produced a miniaturised nuclear warhead that could fit inside a ballistic missile and that last week it was threatening to strike the US base of Guam. In my view the threat posed by North Korea and supreme leader Kim Jong-un is one of the greatest security challenges facing Australia, and it is something that we should be talking about in this place. However, we must proceed with caution to ensure, as much as we can, that we maintain peace, stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

I welcome the UN Security Council imposing new sanctions on North Korea—which was supported, importantly, by Russia and China—for carrying out intercontinental ballistic missile tests on 3 July and 28 July 2017. I welcome UN resolution 2371, which targets North Korea's primary exports, including coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. According to Richard Roth's CNN report, the sanctions also target other revenue streams, such as banks and joint ventures with foreign companies. The sanctions will slash North Korea's annual export revenue of $3 billion by more than a third, according to a statement from the office of Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the United Nations. UN resolution 2371 not only imposes the strongest sanctions ever imposed in response to a ballistic missile test but also calls on North Korea to cease any further missile launches, nuclear tests or acts of provocation.

It is vital in the coming weeks, if it can be done, to de-escalate tensions, stop the war of words and urge North Korea to return to diplomatic talks. It's been unfortunate that, since 2009, six-party talks between Japan, South Korea, Russia, China, the US and North Korea have been suspended. In his annual new year's address in January 2017, the North Korean leader declared his country to be in the final stage of preparation for a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. As North Korea has carried out these tests, it is imperative that some form of diplomatic talks be convened. Any diplomatic talks may be unable to force North Korea to give up its current stockpile of weapons in the short term. As we say in political negotiations, it's best to prepare for the worst but negotiate for the best possible outcome.

In extemporising a bit about what is occurring in this situation, in light of the somewhat provocative language used by what I categorise to be the very reckless leader of North Korea, it is imperative that the political class maintain an appropriate posture in dealing with the bellicose threats issued by that leader. I particularly welcome the contribution made by someone I know, John McLaughlin, a former deputy director at the Central Intelligence Agency between 2001 and 2004, and acting director in 2004. In this period of escalating crisis, he refers on his social media to a conversation, which occurred at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, between President John F Kennedy, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson and Pierre Salinger. In that discussion President Kennedy urged restraint in the use of language about what actions would be taken and sought to clarify what Lyndon Johnson had said, because Lyndon Johnson had intimated that there'd be direct military action taken against Cuba. In a general sense, in any utterances made, I think we could do with the sort of discipline and rigour that was applied by President Kennedy. Whilst preparing for the worst, we must negotiate for the best. That implies, I think, some significant challenges for Australia in terms of its future defence should North Korea not comply with the UN sanctions and UN directives, but, at this stage, cool heads should prevail.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to second the motion of my friend and colleague the member for Berowra on the appalling situation in North Korea. I echo his concern about the ongoing situation and the actions that threaten the region, our allies and even ourselves. The North Korean nuclear crisis has been simmering away for more than a decade now, with periodic flare-ups. As this isolated and paranoid state gets closer to its goal of nuclear weapons that can reach the US, these flare-ups have become more bellicose and of greater concern. We're currently seeing the latest and most concerning of these rising tensions. Both the US and North Korea have firm positions they need to maintain. The US cannot permit a rogue nation to have a missile that can reach its coast or threaten its allies. At the same time, the North will not feel it is safe until it has a nuclear deterrent, and it will do everything it has to until it reaches this goal. These inevitable tensions are considerably inflamed by the unyielding and strong words coming from the leaders of both nations.

While the nuclear program and the threats from both sides steal the news headlines, hidden behind the crisis is an ongoing North Korean humanitarian disaster. I have sincere concerns about the horrendous violations of human rights that are occurring. The widespread nature of these violations is as shocking as the incidents themselves. Living life in a Nineteen Eighty-Four simulation, with fear and rumour of the fates that have befallen your friends, is a concept too awful to contemplate; however, dwelling on the injustice and terror of this regime achieves few results. Thanks in part to the Australian government's work to bring firsthand reports of this to the Security Council, the entire world now knows the depravity of life in North Korea.

Bennelong has one of the largest Korean communities in the country. I know the recent developments are of significant concern to them and the family members they have back in Korea—both North and South. I spoke on this issue in 2015 and at the time I said I believed the constant negativity of this debate was further entrenching the situation there. As I said at that time, negativity can only enforce the status quo; positivity can aspire to change it. I have spoken with many Bennelong locals about this sad state and I would particularly like to thank Jason Koh, of the Korean Chamber of Commerce, and Agnes Shim, of the Sydney Korean Women's Association. They, with many others, are stalwarts of the local Korean community. Views across this community seem fairly united and very opposed to the rising tensions and words of aggression. Family reunions are a particular concern locally. Many in the South—and many in Bennelong—have cousins and family members across the border. Unfortunately, time is not on their side. Many people in my local community are 70 or over, but they still remember the days of an undivided Korea, before the border split their families. Reunions, when they are allowed by the North Koreans, see no more than 300 people connect with each other over a 24-hour period. Even for this paltry time, there are over 70,000 people on the waiting list. The current rate of reunions is unworkable, and many families will not have the chance to be reunited before it is too late.

I join the voices that call for the north to allow more of these reunions as a matter of urgency. All have informed me of the tentative hope they hold for the future of their cousins across the border. It is these people who are often forgotten by the geopolitical rhetoric and aggressive headlines, but we cannot afford to forget them. On behalf of the Korean community in my electorate of Bennelong, I would like to echo this motion's calls for North Korea to return to the negotiating table. I agree that China and anyone else who has any influence should do what they can to bring peace to this peninsula. One of my constituents once told me of the genuine determination of many in the north to stay the course they have set themselves and that, as such, threats don't work. But, as he went on to say, it is the soft rain that soaks in. We must do all we can to wind down these tensions, not for the reputations of these states but for the people who have to pay the price of this conflict.

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to speak on this motion on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, put forward by my good friend and colleague the member for Berowra. We've been collaborating on many things in this parliament, including on suicide prevention, and he is also a very assiduous contributor to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, as is our friend and colleague the member for Holt. I'd also like to endorse the comments by my friend the member for Bennelong, who, rightly, concentrated on the very important humanitarian issues at stake in North Korea.

North Korea is a horrendous regime in many, many respects. We have heard about the issues they have in relation to their domestic population. No people in the world have suffered more in recent years than the population of North Korea—through starvation, mistreatment and horrendous repression. But the pressing issue of the moment is the North Korean pursuit of this nuclear capability and their missile technology. Certainly it is important for the region, for our government, to really engage actively now through a process of a full-court press of diplomacy and to keep cool, calm, and calculated in relation to those measures.

We have a lot of regional architecture whereby we should be incredibly active in marshalling pressure on North Korea. In particular, as has often been aired in this discussion, our relationship with China should be leveraged to the full, for them to obviously use their extremely important relations and connections with North Korea to achieve a good outcome here. I endorse what's been said by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd about stepping back and looking at the grand bargain that we should be seeking to strike—identifying the bigger Chinese issues and interests that are at stake and seeing what we can leverage in relation to neutralising the peninsula. That can be done in a lot of ways in respect of the interests of China—not having foreign troops close to their border, et cetera. Certainly they have massive economic issues at stake, and it is in their significant interest to make sure that we have a peaceful outcome and that the trade and economic strength of the region is not undermined by the uncertainty created by North Korea.

The ANZUS alliance has been discussed in this space and is a very important part of our national security structure. We would be closely involved in working through issues related to any attack on the United States and would support our ally in defending itself. It is also important that very clear messages be sent to North Korea about the willingness of all of us to defend ourselves against these heinous threats from North Korea. But North Korea is not just a threat in our region. One of the things I'm particularly concerned about is the way North Korea cooperates so closely with Iran, another heinous regime, which brutalises gay and lesbian people, oppresses women and is a negative influence through all the tactics they employ in the region. We had news just today that they are investigating another $520 million in their missile technology, and it's been very evident that over the years they've cooperated extremely closely with North Korea on exchanging technology. All of their early missiles were in fact just straight copies of North Korean missiles, and the consequences of a nuclear armed and missile-efficient Iran is greatly concerning.

When I was in Strategy Group in Defence, it alarmed me greatly to learn of the correspondence that passed between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Merkel of Germany, where, effectively, he commented favourably on how Germany had dealt with the issue of the Jews during World War II and was keen on entering into a dialogue about how the problem could be resolved in relation to the remaining Jewish population in Palestine—a 10-page letter that was extremely disturbing. It shows the potential that there is in an Iranian regime that is always going to be vulnerable to the particular whims, fantasies and distortions of a leader at any given time within that anti-democratic structure that they maintain.

So North Korea and Iran are part of that same dimension of the threat to the global peace and security that we seek to maintain. I really urge the government and urge members to stay abreast of this issue and to advocate, cohesively and together, an effective outcome. There is time. We should be treating this issue with the seriousness that it deserves, and I support any government effort to diplomatically achieve a good outcome on this issue.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.