Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Di Natale for his question. What the senator fails to appreciate is that a significant proportion of the sanction measures which have been adopted most recently unanimously by the UN Security Council are only coming into full operation now. They are very comprehensive and important sanctions that must be given the opportunity to work. In engaging in discussions with our allies the United States, with Japan and with South Korea we are acutely focused on the potential impact that the regime's behaviour has not just for the region, not just for our own countries but indeed for the world. Every diplomatic measure, every measure that can be pursued through the UN Security Council, must be pursued and pursued to its fullest degree. That is the position which the government has taken.

At the same time, the Prime Minister has made it quite clear that the US and Australia stand as the strongest of allies on this issue. We understand that we have to make it extremely clear as allies and as observers of the rules-based global order, as observers of international law, that the behaviour of the regime in North Korea is illegal, is provocative and is destructive to regional stability and security, indeed international security and stability, and that is the very clear approach that the government, the Prime Minister, the foreign minister and I have taken.