FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop has spoken of the “grave” threat Australia faces from a nuclear-armed North Korea, as Australia hit back at the latest incendiary comments from the reclusive state.
After North Korea accused Australia of “blindly and zealously toeing the US line” and threatened a nuclear strike on one of America’s chief allies in the Pacific region, Ms Bishop said the country’s military ambitions could not continue to go unchecked.
“North Korea’s threats of nuclear strikes against other nations further underlines the need for the regime to abandon its illegal nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs,” she said.
“These present a grave threat to its neighbours, and if left unchecked, to the broader region including Australia.
“The North Korean government should invest in the welfare of its long-suffering citizens, rather than weapons of mass destruction.”
North Korea’s threat of a nuclear strike on Australia is of “enormous concern” but such threats have become part of the regime’s day-to-day rhetoric, according to the Opposition.
The rogue state turned its sights on Australia, threatening nuclear retaliation after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said North Korea would be subject to further Australian sanctions.
North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman accusing the Australian foreign minister of “spouting a string of rubbish against the DPRK over its entirely just steps for self-defence”.
“If Australia persists in following the US moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and remains a shock brigade of the US master, this will be a suicidal act of coming within the range of the nuclear strike of the strategic force of the DPRK.
Labor’s defence spokesman Richard Marles today said North Korea’s statement was a matter of enormous concern, but noted Pyongyang had made similar threats to other nations, even a veiled one at China.
But Marles did not believe conflict on the Korean peninsula was particularly likely and backed the approach the US has taken on North Korea.
“I do think a harder edge being presented by America in respect of North Korea is not a bad thing,” Marles told Sky News on Sunday.
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