North Korea’s missile aim will include Australia
North Korea directs missiles towards Australia, SMH, Peter Hartcher March 24, 2012 NORTH KOREA’S forthcoming missile launch will be aimed towards South-East Asia and Australia for the first time, the US has warned.
The warning was delivered in person yesterday to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, by a senior official in the Obama Administration, Kurt Campbell, during a visit to Sydney.
North Korea, which claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear
weapon in 2009, has for years worked to improve its long-range
ballistic missile capability. Previous missile tests have been
launched east, over Japan. But US intelligence suggests the launch
announced for mid-April will be aimed south for the first time. North
Korea directs missiles towards Australia
March 24, 2012
NORTH KOREA’S forthcoming missile launch will be aimed towards
South-East Asia and Australia for the first time, the US has warned.
The warning was delivered in person yesterday to the Foreign Affairs
Minister, Bob Carr, by a senior official in the Obama Administration,
Kurt Campbell, during a visit to Sydney.
North Korea, which claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear
weapon in 2009, has for years worked to improve its long-range
ballistic missile capability. Previous missile tests have been
launched east, over Japan. But US intelligence suggests the launch
announced for mid-April will be aimed south for the first time.
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“If the missile test proceeds as North Korea has indicated, our
judgment is that it will impact in an area roughly between Australia,
Indonesia and the Philippines,” Dr Campbell, the assistant secretary
of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said yesterday.
“We have never seen this trajectory before. We have weighed into each
of these countries and asked them to make clear that such a test is
provocative and this plan should be discontinued.”
After the meeting Mr Carr told the Herald: “The North Korean nuclear
and long-range missile plans represent a real and credible threat to
the security of the region and to Australia.”
The launch would be “in clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”
Mr Carr said he and Dr Campbell had “shared views on how both the US
and Australia could engage our regional partners and allies to
encourage North Korea to abandon its plans”.
The US President, Barack Obama, will be among some 50 leaders,
including Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to meet in a
summit in the South Korean capital of Seoul on Monday to discuss
nuclear disarmament. North Korea’s abrupt announcement last week of
its missile test is expected to dominate discussion.
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