Julian Leeser (Berowra, 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 the steps the government is taking in response to tensions 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 Berowra for this important question. He knows that the recent threatening, dangerous and provocative behaviour of the North Korean regime is not only deeply unsettling for our region but also a matter of deep concern to the Australian public. I certainly judge that from the number of emails and phone calls that my electorate office and my ministerial office have received, and I'm sure other members can attest to that.

The North Korean regime has been a security risk for some time, but it's the sheer scale and pace of its recent illegal ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests that is so confronting. Since Kim Jong-un assumed the leadership of North Korea in December 2011, there have been over 80 ballistic missile tests—more than the combined total of the previous three decades. Of North Korea's six nuclear tests, four of them have been conducted under Kim Jong-un.

It is overwhelmingly in Australia's interests for there to be a peaceful resolution to the crisis on the Korean peninsula, and Australia is adding its voice and actions to the collective effort to bring greater pressure to bear on North Korea to make it change its behaviour. Particularly, we are fully implementing the UN Security Council mandated sanctions and also additional autonomous sanctions. The Australian government has also lodged formal protests directly with the North Korean regime through its accredited embassies in Jakarta, New York and Seoul. Given that North Korea is threatening the international nuclear non-proliferation regime that has governed the use of nuclear technology since 1970, we instructed our ambassador in Vienna to make a statement overnight at an extraordinary session of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization commission and we demanded that North Korea cease its ballistic and nuclear weapons programs and that it abide by international law and international norms. Also overnight, the UN Security Council held an extraordinary meeting, and the United States will be circulating a draft resolution to be adopted next week.

Australia supports stronger UN Security Council responses, including even stronger and tougher economic sanctions, particularly those where China can exercise its leverage. The Prime Minister and I continue to talk with our counterparts in the region and also with the permanent five members of the Security Council. It is overwhelmingly in our interests to pursue every avenue and use every effort to find a peaceful resolution to this crisis.

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

On indulgence: we thank the foreign affairs minister for her update to the House. The opposition very strongly supports the actions that the government are taking. It is a most grave and serious matter. Stronger sanctions for the United Nations Security Council resolution is a very important step. The best path, of course, remains doing all that we can to restrain and contain North Korea's nuclear ambitions.