The saber-rattling between the United States of America and the rogue North Korean regime hit new highs this week as the President confirmed on Tuesday (Wednesday in Australia) that, “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”.
Responding in a typically belligerent tone, Pyongyang announced it was “carefully examining” a plan to strike near the US Pacific territory of Guam with missiles.
In the days since the United Nations Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea, attention has turned to their biggest trading partner, Communist China, to see how they would enforce the measures. The measures have been designed to slash up to 1/3 of the country’s annual $3b of export revenues.
Answering a Dorothy Dixer in Parliament during the week, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, warned “reports that North Korea has acquired the ability to develop a militarised nuclear device, that could be placed on an intercontinental device, are deeply unsettling” before sternly rebuking the leadership saying, “responsibility for the tension and instability, arising from the Korean Peninsula, lies at the feet of the regime in Pyongyang”.
The Prime Minister said Australia fully supports the “new and harsh sanctions”, characterising the actions of the Pyongyang dictatorship to be “illegal and reckless” and urging the country to “come to their senses”. Doubling-down on those comments, the Prime Minister, speaking on Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday morning, also confirmed Australia would enact the ANZUS Treaty and “come to the aid of the United States” if North Korea launched an attack against our ally. In a steadfast manner, the Prime Minister said, “the United States has no stronger ally than Australia. We have an ANZUS agreement and if there is an attack on Australia or the United States then each of us will come to the other’s aid”.
