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 how the government, as part of international efforts, is working to peacefully resolve tensions arising from North Korea's illegal nuclear and ballistic missile program?

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

I thank the member for Berowra for his question and I commend him for recently hosting a forum that was attended by well over 100 Korean Australians and others at which I spoke and addressed a number of these issues, which are of great concern to all Australians. North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests are provocative, threatening to other nations and illegal in that they are in direct defiance of numerous UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting such tests. Australia has joined with other nations including South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and others in a collective strategy whereby we are maximising diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea in a peaceful campaign to compel North Korea back to the negotiating table.

On the diplomatic front, an increasing number of nations are making it clear that North Korean ambassadors are no longer welcome in their capitals. We have seen nations including Spain, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Egypt, the Philippines and others expel their North Korean ambassador. Indeed, there hasn't been a North Korean ambassador in Australia since 2008. On the economic front, we support the tough, comprehensive set of sanctions that has been implemented by all of the Permanent Five, particularly China and the United States, and we urge all countries to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions on sanctions.

Last week the Minister for Defence, Senator Marise Payne, and I attended the regular two-plus-two South Korean meeting with our counterparts, Minister Kang and Minister Song. We also met with the director of the National Intelligence Service in South Korea for a lengthy briefing. We travelled to the DMZ and met with UN Command, as I know the Leader of the Opposition has recently. We met with General Brooks, who is the commander of United Nations Command; US Forces Korea and ROK-US Combined Forces Command. We reiterated our solidarity with South Korea and our support for even tougher sanctions against North Korea because it must be deterred from its illegal tests and compelled back to the negotiating table so we can achieve a denuclearised Korean peninsula.

North Korea's belligerent and threatening response will only strengthen our resolve to find a peaceful resolution to the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula that have been caused entirely by North Korea's provocative and illegal behaviour. The Australian government—and I'm sure we're joined by the opposition—urges North Korea to abandon its illegal tests, to return to the negotiating table and to direct its resources and energy into alleviating the suffering of the North Korean people.