Australian Govt seeks peaceful solution to N. Korean threats

SYDNEY: Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has stared down threats from North Korea, saying they only strengthen Australia’s resolve to find a peaceful solution.

The Pyongyang regime has criticised Australia’s ‘‘dangerous moves’’ in its support of United States political and military provocations and said if this continued it would not be able to ‘‘avoid disaster’’.

‘‘North Korea’s threats only strengthen our resolve to find a peaceful solution to the rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula caused entirely by North Korea’s illegal, threatening and provocative behaviour,’’ Bishop told reporters in Sydney yesterday.

However, the Government said it expected the rogue state’s provocative pattern of behaviour, which has included nuclear weapon tests, would continue.

The Pyongyang regime issued its latest warning after Bishop and Defence Minister Marise Payne met their South Korean counterparts in Seoul late last week.

‘‘Should Australia continue to follow the US in imposing military, economic and diplomatic pressure upon the DPRK despite our repeated warnings, they will not be able to avoid a disaster,’’ staterun news agency KCNA warned in a statement on Saturday.

Pyongyang had seemingly set out to embarrass China with escalating behaviour while its largest ally was the centre of international attention, Bishop said.

The Australian Government expected the provocations to continue, she added, noting China would again be in the global spotlight later this week.

‘‘There may be another provocative act by North Korea around the time of the 19th Party Congress — we hope not — but this seems to have been a pattern of behaviour,’’ she said.

Labor Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said her party supported the Government in standing with allies against the ‘‘greatest risk to stability and peace in our region’’.

‘‘What we do need to do is respond calmly and soberly and stand with the international community resolutely against this risk,’’ Wong told 2GB radio yesterday.

Labor frontbencher Ed Husic said North Korea not only represented a threat to the region but also global security.

‘‘Clearly, we’re not going to respond favourably to the type of statements that have been expressed by the North Koreans,’’ he told ABC television

‘‘The time is for sober and calm talk, not talk that makes things harder to deal with.’’ — AAP