Antinuclear

The bombshell revelation comes after North Korean newspaper the Rodong Sinmun this week said the presence of US Marines in Darwin could make the city a target for one of the regime’s nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.

The newspaper claimed the US was “fanatically, crazily” using Darwin “to optimise its nuclear war readiness”.“This is the largest scale US military presence in Australia after World War II,” the story said.“If Australia persists in following the US … this will be a suicidal act of coming within the range of the nuclear strike of the strategic force of the DPRK.”

A TIO spokeswoman said “unfortunately” the company would not make payouts if Kim Jong-un rained hellfire on Darwin. “Unfortunately this is not covered by TIO (or any insurer that we are aware of),” the spokeswoman said.

“Our policy wording specifically excludes: ‘war, invasion, act of foreign enemy, hostilities (whether war be declared or not), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection or military or usurped power’.”

North Korea last year tested a bomb last year that was more powerful that those the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Insurance Council of Australia spokesman Campbell Fuller said there was no point policy holders shopping around.

“Insurance policies typically exclude claims for losses caused by acts of war (whether or not war is declared) and nuclear devices,” he said.

North Korea’s tests of next-generation ballistic missiles that could deliver a nuclear bomb as far as Darwin have so far failed.