Australia, New Zealand hit back at North Korea

SYDNEY: Australia and New Zealand stiffened their rhetoric against North Korea yesterday after the isolated state threatened Canberra with a nuclear strike, urging it to think twice before “blindly and zealously toeing the United States line”.

The move came as US Vice-President Mike Pence wrapped up an Asia tour, which included visits to South Korea, Japan and Australia, partly to reassure allies amid fears that Pyongyang might be readying for a sixth nuclear test.

“If Australia persists in following the US’s moves to isolate and stifle North Korea... this will be a suicidal act,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said after Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop called the hermit state a “serious threat”.

The spokesman, speaking to the North’s official KCNA news agency, warned Bishop to “think twice about the consequences”.

Australia’s close ally New Zealand had since accused North Korea of having “evil intent”.

New Zealand Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee told TVNZ Sunday that people knew little about Kim Jong-un’s regime, but “you would assume that underneath him there is a very big machinery of people who have equally evil intent”.

“It’s North Korea that is sending the missiles into the Sea of Japan and making outrageous threats, including threats to Australia,” he added.

Bishop added yesterday that the North Korean government “should invest in the welfare of its long-suffering citizens, rather than weapons of mass destruction”.

The reclusive state had long been seeking to develop a longrange missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and had so far staged five atomic tests, two of them last year.

Pence vowed on Wednesday that the US would counter any attack with an “overwhelming and effective” response after a senior North Korean official pledged weekly missile tests and “all-out war” if the US took any action against it.

Pence maintained calls for Pyongyang’s sole ally China to do more to rein in its neighbour.

Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also urged China to use its leverage over the hermit state, describing the North Korean regime as “reckless and dangerous”.

He added that Australia and the US were “absolutely united” in their determination to achieve a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. AFP