PM BACKS TRUMP

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Australia will invoke ANZUS treaty if rogue state decides to attack Guam as:

AUSTRALIA will come to the aid of the US if North Korea launches an attack against the US, Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed.

The Prime Minister discussed the unfolding situation with US Vice President Mike Pence this week and received a briefing from the Chief of the Defence Force, Mark Binskin, in Canberra yesterday.

“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,” Mr Turnbull said. “In terms of defence, we are joined at the hip.”

Asked about Tony Abbott’s call for Australia to urgently consider a missile-defence system, Mr Turnbull said the country was constantly reviewing its position.

He said the advice from Defence was there was no benefit in deploying a US-style Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAD) system.

“THAD’s designed to provide protection for relatively small areas against short to intermediate-range missiles,” he said.

The Vice President again told the Prime Minister that the US sees the way to resolve the situation as being through economic sanctions, despite President Donald Trump threats of “fire and fury”.

A STATE-run newspaper says China will remain neutral if North Korea attacks the United States.

But if the US attacks Pyongyang — “we will stop them”.

President Donald Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric towards North Korea and its leader yesterday, warning Pyongyang against attacking Guam or US allies after it disclosed plans to fire missiles over Japan to land near the US Pacific territory.

China, North Korea’s most important ally and trading partner, has reiterated calls for calm during the current crisis.

It has expressed frustration with both Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear and missile tests and with behaviour from South Korea and the US that it sees as escalating tensions.

The widely read state-run Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, wrote in an editorial that Beijing is not able to persuade either Washington or Pyongyang to back down.

“It [China] needs to make clear its stance to all sides and make them understand that when their actions jeopardise China’s interests, China will respond with a firm hand,” the paper said.

“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral,

“If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.”

China has long worried that any conflict on the Korean Peninsula, or a repeat of the 1950-53 Korean War, could unleash a wave of destabilising refugees into its north-east, and could end up with a reunified county allied with the United States.

North Korea is a useful buffer state for China between it and US forces based in South Korea, and also across the sea in Japan.

The Global Times said China would “firmly resist any side which wants to change the status quo of the areas where China’s interests are concerned”.

“The Korean Peninsula is where the strategic interests of all sides converge, and no side should try to be the absolute dominator of the region.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said any attack on the US by North Korea would prompt him to invoke the ANZUS treaty — and rush to Mr Trump’s aid.

Mr Turnbull said he remained confident that diplomatic sanctions on North Korea “will bring the regime to its senses”.

But he said the US and Australia were joined at the hip when it came to defence.

“The United States has no stronger ally than Australia,” he said.

“If North Korea decides to carry out some of its violent threats, then obviously terrible consequences will follow ... If there is an attack on the United States, the ANZUS treaty would be invoked and we would come to their aid,” he said.

He rejected calls for Australia to invest in missile defence equipment, such as Patriot and THAAD missile systems, and upgraded AEGIS missile warships.

“The current advice from Defence to the Government is that they do not consider that there is a benefit to deploy a system such as the THAAD system — Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, bit of a mouthful — for defence of Australian territory.

“The reason for that is that THAAD is designed to provide protection for relatively small areas against short to intermediate range missiles.”

Intercontinental ballistic missiles fly much faster and approach with much steeper trajectories than cruise or medium-range missiles, making them immensely difficult to target.

And Mr Trump said maybe his “fire and fury” line on North Korea “wasn’t tough enough” and called on the country to “get its act together.”

Mr Trump, who on Tuesday said North Korea could face “fire and fury” in some off-thecuff comments, has doubled down on the threat.

“If anything, maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough,” he told reporters at his New Jersey golf club where he remains on holiday.

Mr Trump said North Korea had “better get their act together or they are going to be in trouble like few nations have ever been in trouble.”

North Korea’s official news agency released a statement about the same time asserting Kim Jong un had vowed to “mercilessly wipe out the provocateurs” and promised the US would suffer a “shameful defeat and final doom”.

“Let’s see what he [Kim Jong un] does with Guam,” Mr Trump said. “He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before.

“You’ll see, you’ll see. And he’ll see,” he said.

Mr Trump declined to say whether the US is considering a pre-emptive military strike.

“If North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about an attack on anybody we love or we represent or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous,” he told reporters.

“And they should be ... because things will happen to them like they never thought possible.”

His comment followed reports that Pyongyang had successfully miniaturised a nuclear weapon. It marks a major step in the country’s nuclear ambitions.

North Korea’s state media responded by saying the country was considering a plan to attack Guam.