JONES:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Alan.
JONES:
Prime Minister, thank you for your time, look I know you';re going to talk about terrorism with President Arroyo, but I';m just wondering if we mightn';t be able to move firstly to straight away to North Korea. Reports today which you would have already been briefed on that North Korea has enough plutonium to build up to a dozen atomic bombs, some within months, that it has just finished processing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods in its Yongbyon nuclear plant - what are Australians to make of the North Korean threat?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s quite a serious issue, I don';t want to talk specifically about the intelligence we have but it is a serious issue. What we';re trying to do along with South Korea, Japan, the United States, China is to build a solid front of diplomatic pressure to persuade North Korea that in her own long term interests, walking away from a nuclear programme is the best thing. It won';t be easy because you';ll remember back 10 years ago the world did a deal with North Korea to supply energy capacity and other things in return for them giving away their nuclear aspirations. We thought that was the solution and then we found through the use of intelligence that North Korea had cheated on that and when confronted with it they owned up. Now North Korea is a country that is a bit of an odd man out, it still has a very Stalinist regime when Stalinist regimes have disappeared virtually from the face of the earth and therefore dealing with it is unusual and some of the persuasions and treaties that will work with other countries won';t work with North Korea. China is very important to this…
JONES:
Well can I just talk that point because you, or we, Australia, one of the 11 members of that US-led proliferation and security initiative which last week as I understand agreed to intercept North Korean ships and aircraft suspected of trafficking in weapons of mass destruction as part of this global crackdown on the trade of such weapons. Now China you mention, its support is significance. China';s condemned this 11 nation agreement, it';s called it useless and antagonistic and it says China doesn';t, the Foreign Minister said China doesn';t approve of sanctions, blockages or other measures which are aimed at putting pressure on North Korea. Now without China on side, the job';s tough isn';t it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well China is very important, and I know that';s been the initial reaction. I';m not sure that it will remain the reaction for all time, we hope it won';t. We think in the short term there should be preparations made in case we decide on an interception initiative. There has not been a decision taken by the Australian Government at this moment to be involved in interception, we';re going to take part in some exercises and we';ll just see how the thing develops. That is obviously one of the options that needs to be developed, and it';s a possibility that I discussed with President Bush two months ago when I saw him in Texas and quite plainly it was an issue that was on the table during the meeting in Brisbane.
JONES:
You seem though to be saying last week that we were prepared to go to war against North Korea…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I thought I actually was careful not to respond to that answer, look Alan this is a very serious thing. I know when issues like this arise people say well in the end will you go to war sort of thing, it doesn';t serve anything for me to be talking about what we may or may not do in the end. What we have to try and do is to achieve as always some kind of peaceful settlement and that involves a number of things, it involves diplomatic effort, it involves a willingness to work with other countries, to resist behaviour that is antagonistic to our interests. But I don';t want to be talking about war and military conflict. That does not help. But I don';t want anybody to imagine that this is anything other than a quite serious situation, North Korea is quite openly flaunting her nuclear ambitions and we';re not dealing here with a country that is behaving in the way that most countries behave these days.
JONES:
Now they say that they could land a missile in the suburbs of South Korea any day they wanted to.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, and it is a very anxious time not only for South Korea but also for Japan and I think I will have an even better understanding of just how intensely people feel in those two countries by the time this visit is over, next weekend.
JONES:
Prime Minister, you know here you';ve got a country which makes its money out of the illegal shipment of drugs and nuclear weapons, basically this is the way it functions, how much longer does the international community endure countries like this? I mean it';s virtually a basket case, their people are threatened with prison camps, yet they run this billion dollar business exporting illegal drugs and weapons, their people go hungry, where is the United Nations in all of this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the United Nations has in the past been part of attempts to deal with North Korea, to be fair. They were back almost 10 years ago and I would expect at some point in the very near future the United Nations could be involved again. Remember though that the United Nations is ultimately the expression, particularly through the Security Council, of the will of the United States, China, Russia, the UK and a number of other countries and it';s important that all of those countries work together, that';s why, if I could go back to an earlier point, why the involvement and co-operation of China in the solution…
JONES:
Absolutely.
PRIME MINISTER:
… important, very important.
JONES:
Absolutely, but if North Korea needs the cash it';ll continue exporting weapons and drugs to any rogue nation or terrorist that can pay.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that is a worry and you will recall what happened with the Pong Su, the ship that was clearly trying to be part of North Korea';s drug trade. Fortunately we intercepted that and did a very good job of apprehending it and impounding the cargo. But that is an example of what we';re dealing with, you say how long should the world put up with it? Well clearly the world has to find a solution that eliminates the problem that you put your finger on but eliminates it in a way that doesn';t cause an even greater problem, namely a very devastating military conflict on the Korean peninsula.
JONES:
Absolutely. Prime Minister, Japan with a massive $5 trillion economy, is Mr Koizumi going to do a Sepp Blatter soccer job on you here because 15 months ago during your visit he promised that the two countries, Australia and Japan, should, quote, aim at a free trade agreement. There doesn';t seem to be much enthusiasm for that in Japan now all over agriculture where I see they';re going to increase the tariff on our beef to 50 per cent as early as next month. What can you do about this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that';s obviously something that I will be raising with him, the increased tariff on the beef. I would expect we';ll make some progress on some kind of framework economic understanding, not a free trade agreement in precise terms, there';s some resistance to a negotiation on that in Japan. I think what you have to remember though is for all, everything that you';ve said is right, for all of that though Japan remains Australia';s best export destination. I mean we have to keep things in perspective, there is no better customer for Australian product than Japan, if it hadn';t been for Japan through the 60';s and 70';s and 80';s Australia would not be as affluent as it now is…
JONES:
Sure, but we';re all going on about free trade and we seem to sort of preach all of this, well they, Japan and America…
PRIME MINISTER:
I';m very hard headed about this though, I mean my doctrine is what is in Australia';s interests I';ll go after and it';s in Australia';s interests to keep a good trading relationship with Japan. If we can get more access well that';s terrific, it';s very much in Australia';s interests to try and get a free trade agreement with the United States because the United States economy will be even more important to Australia as the years go by, not less important and we';ll continue to push very hard for that because that is the big one as far as bilateral free trade agreements are concerned because the American economy for all the difficulties it';s now having is undeniably still the economic powerhouse of the world and will become more so as we move through this century.
JONES:
It';s a hell of a job you';ve got, good luck. How long are you away for? 10 days?
PRIME MINISTER:
Just away for week, I';ll be back next Sunday.
JONES:
Thanks Prime Minister, thank you for your time and good luck on behalf of Australia.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]