Antinuclear

Australia may be nuclear target: Kevin Rudd, THE AUSTRALIAN, Peter Alford in Nusa Dua , July 23, 2011  FOREIGN Minister Kevin Rudd says North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs are a direct threat to Australia……He lashed out following an intervention by Foreign Minister Pak U’i-chu’un at the ASEAN Regional Forum blaming the US, South Korea and Japan for  provoking the current dangerous instability on the Korean Peninsula.

Mr Rudd told Mr Pak it was “unacceptable” for North Korea to blame on others the security problems it had caused for the whole region, having recently torpedoed a South Korean naval frigate, shelled civilians’ homes across the border  and defied two UN Security Council resolutions by pursuing an enriched uranium weapons program.

Mr Rudd said North Korea’s uranium weaponisation program had the objective of putting nuclear warheads on long-range missiles was a direct threat to Australia.North Korea has been working for about a decade on its Taepodong-2 long-range missile, with a reported design range of 15,000km but its two known flight tests are believed to have failed.