Joyce warns China over North Korea

ACTING Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has outlined serious economic consequences for China if it fails to rein in North Korea after its latest missile test.

In a sign the Australian Government would consider increasing pressure on China to act after Pyongyang’s successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, Mr Joyce said the prosperity of China was “inextricably linked” to peace in the region.

He said Australia had “sympathy” for trade sanctions against China in response to North Korea's latest threat.

Speaking on ABC radio yesterday, the acting PM did not directly respond to questions about whether Australia would back military action to curtail the growing threat from Pyongyang.

But Mr Joyce said Australia had a significant stake in the matter with North Korean missiles now able to reach Darwin.

“What we can say is that quite obviously the US is not going to allow a rogue nation – well I don’t know that the nation’s rogue but certainly the leader’s rogue – to develop the capacity to deliver a nuclear bomb to the US and by so doing ... deliver a nuclear bomb, if they wish to, to Australia, especially the northern parts of Australia,” Mr Joyce said.

“We have real cards on the table in this one.”

China, and to some extent Russia, needed to act, he said.

“It’s no point them saying ‘scale it down’ – it is the North Koreans developing those weapons, developing the capacity to deliver those weapons to countries such as Australia, such as the US. That has to be dealt with and they can do it,” Mr Joyce said.

“We can say, quite clearly, the economic prosperity of China, of South-East Asia, is inextricably linked to peace in that area – and the greatest risk to peace in that area is North Korea.”

Later in the day, Mr Joyce told Sky News: “If North Korea was to deliver a warhead into the United States of America then the ANZUS alliance would be called in.”

On Tuesday, Russia and China urged North Korea to suspend its intercontinental ballistic missile program in return for a halt in military exercises by the US and South Korea and stopping deployment of the THAAD missile defence system.

Senator Penny Wong, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, called on the PM and Foreign Minister to clarify whether the government was considering imposing trade sanctions against China.

“Australia has a $22 billion trade surplus with China with exports worth

$86 billion in 2015-16,” she said, adding that a tit-for-tat trade conflict with China would devastate the Australian economy, jobs and living standards.

“The only thing more concerning than the Acting Prime Minister freelancing on foreign policy would be if the government is seriously contemplating imposing sanctions on China,” she said.