North Korea singles out Darwin

Australia’s Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has laughed off North Korea’s latest claims against them, telling the US deployment in Darwin, the sixth and most complex US marine air-ground task force to be deployed to the territory, is not in any way a preparation for a conflagration on the Korean Peninsula: “Obviously, we want to avoid any such military action and we want the North Koreans to behave as well as they can, like reasonable, international citizens. That means ending their missile testing and not preparing for a nuclear war with either the United States, Japan, South Korea or anyone else for that matter."

Mr. Pyne added North Korea does not yet have the capability to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile that would reach Australia, “And one of the reasons why the Trump administration is strengthening its attitude in North Korea is to avoid North Korea ever having that capability. For that reason, Australia supports the United States’ actions very strongly and we call on China to take the lead role as the nation with the most influence over North Korea in bringing that about.”

(Read more)