North Korea threatens Australia with ‘disaster’
North Korea urged Australia to maintain "sharp vigilance against the heinous and reckless moves of the Trump administration trying to drive the world into a horrible nuclear disaster." Source: Shutterstock
North Korea urged Australia to maintain "sharp vigilance against the heinous and reckless moves of the Trump administration trying to drive the world into a horrible nuclear disaster." Source: Shutterstock
NORTH KOREA’s regime has issued a warning to Australian lawmakers of a possible “miscalculation” by its staunch ally the United States under President Donald Trump.
In a letter issued to Australia’s parliament, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday, the Foreign Affairs Committee for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said it was a nuclear power that would not back down to threats from US President Donald Trump to destroy it.
“If Trump thinks that he would bring the DPRK, a nuclear power, to its knees through nuclear war threat, it will be a big miscalculation and an expression of ignorance,” said a facsimile of the letter, verified by Australia’s foreign ministry.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 22, 2017. Source: Reuters/Lucas Jackson
“Trump threatened to totally destroy the DPRK … it is an extreme act of threatening to totally destroy the whole world.”
After a visit by Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to South Korea last week, Pyongyang warned that Australia faced “disaster” if it continued to “follow the US in imposing military, economic and diplomatic pressure upon the DPRK.”
Titled “Open Letter to Parliaments of Different Countries,” the note said it was sent from North Korea’s Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Australia’s Embassy in the same city, as well as to other countries, without naming them.
Tension has soared on the peninsula following a series of weapons tests by North Korea and a string of increasingly bellicose exchanges between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visits Ryuwon Footwear Factory in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on October 19, 2017. Source: KCNA/via Reuters
Trump, in a speech last month at the United Nations, threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if necessary to defend itself and allies and called the North’s leader Kim Jong Un a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.
The letter calls for “countries loving independence, peace and justice” to discharge their duty and keep “sharp vigilance against the heinous and reckless moves of the Trump administration trying to drive the world into a horrible nuclear disaster.”
.@JulieBishopMP: This letter is evidence the pressure of sanctions being put on North Korea is working. MORE https://t.co/gnuMPC8tAY pic.twitter.com/nzmD98v0u2— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) 19 October 2017
.@JulieBishopMP: This letter is evidence the pressure of sanctions being put on North Korea is working. MORE http://bit.ly/2yV3rC5
At a press conference in Sydney, Foreign Minister Bishop said the note was an “unprecedented” communication, noting that it had been sent from the Foreign Affairs committee rather than the state news agency KCNA.
“It is not the way they usually publish their global messages. The collective strategy of imposing maximum diplomatic and economic pressure through sanctions on North Korea is working. This is a response to the pressure,” said Bishop.
“I think that this shows they are feeling desperate, feeling isolated, trying to demonise the US, trying to divide the international community.”
Additional reporting from Reuters.
