PM promises to ‘aid’ US if Korea attacks
AUSTRALIA will come to America’s aid 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 on Thursday night and received a briefing from the Chief of the Defence Force Mark Binskin and security officials in Canberra yesterday.
Mr Turnbull said the stability of the world was being put at risk by North Korea, and he was committed to working with the US to resolve the situation through diplomatic and economics means.
“But we stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States,” Mr Turnbull said outside the briefing with Air Chief Marshal Binskin.
“The ANZUS treaty means that if America is attacked, we will come to their aid and if Australia is attacked, the Americans will come to ours.
“We are joined at the hip. The American alliance is the bedrock of our national security.”
The US saw the way to resolve the situation as being through economic sanctions, despite Donald Trump’s threats of “fire and fury”, Mr Turnbull said.
“That is the preferred way to deal with it, but of course
if North Korea decides to carry out some of its violent threats, then obviously terrible consequences will follow,” he said.
Defence Minister Marise Payne and Vice Chief of the Defence Force Ray Griggs were at the briefing.
Labor leader Bill Shorten believes nations need to concentrate on encouraging Pyongyang to de-escalate tensions.
“The big concern is actually not the United States, it’s the bellicose and provocative actions of the North Korean dictatorship,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Mr Shorten insisted the Government and Opposition had the same concerns about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s pursuit of nuclear missiles.
“Australians should be reassured that on this matter of North Korea and our national security, the politics of Labor and Liberal are working absolutely together,” he said.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said Mr Trump was “unhinged and paranoid” and Australia should distance itself from the US alliance.
The PM “put a target on our back”.