Nth Korea told to care for citizens
"The Australian foreign minister had better think twice about the consequences to be entailed by her reckless tonguelashing before flattering the US." North Korean state news agency KCNA
NORTH KOREA/AUSTRALIA: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has hit back at North Korea over its threat of a nuclear strike on Australia saying Pyongyang should be investing in the welfare of its ‘‘long-suffering citizens’’ rather than weapons of mass destruction.
The rogue state turned its sights on Australia on Saturday, threatening nuclear retaliation after Bishop said North Korea could be subject to further Australian sanctions. ’’If Australia persists in following the US moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and remains a shock brigade of the US master, this will be a suicidal act of coming within the range of the nuclear strike of the strategic force of the DPRK,’’ Pyongpang said.
Undeterred, Bishop said yesterday that North Korea’s threats of nuclear strikes against other nations further underlines the need for the regime to abandon its illegal nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
‘‘These present a grave threat to its neighbours and, if left unchecked, to the broader region including Australia,’’ she said. ’’The North Korean government should invest in the welfare of its long-suffering citizens, rather than weapons of mass destruction.’’
The threats were reported by the North Korean state news agency KCNA as being made on Friday, in response to a radio interview given by Bishop.
According to a translation of the KCNA report, which was dated Friday, the same day United States Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Australia, Bishop had said that North Korea seriously threatens regional peace and she supports the US policy that ‘‘all options are on the table’’.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of North Korea – officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – was quoted as saying: ‘‘The present government of Australia is blindly and zealously toeing the US line. It is hard to expect good words from the foreign minister of such government.’’
In the past fortnight North Korean state media has issued daily hyperbolic threats to the United States, while boasting on the front page of its Rodong Sinmun newspaper of the many mentions of its leader Kim Jong Un in international media coverage as the Korean Peninsula crisis continues.
North Korean media similarly attacked South Korean acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn when Pence arrived in South Korea on Monday, and threatened Japan days later.
North Korean state media continues to claim North Korea can strike its enemies anywhere on Earth, which is untrue.
The KCNA report continued: ‘‘The Australian foreign minister had better think twice about the consequences to be entailed by her reckless tongue-lashing before flattering the US.’’
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Saturday pledged support for the US policy on North Korea and again urged China to do more to place economic pressure on North Korea. China has turned back coal shipments to North Korea in recent weeks, one of the regime’s few sources of funding. –