PRIME MINISTER:
…the reckless, provocative, dangerous action by North Korea today with this nuclear test.
The recklessness described quite appropriately by President Park of South Korea as maniacal – the recklessness of North Korea puts the world's peace at risk. It is persistent, it is provocative it's dangerous. The Security Council, we were told yesterday, in Vientiane by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, has considered North Korea's breach of Security Council resolutions on eight occasions this year alone. That is why Australia and Myanmar secured the agreement of the leaders at the East Asia Summit to a new declaration, a new commitment to end the proliferation of nuclear weapons, to work to support non-proliferation.
It's critically important that the Korean Peninsula is de-nuclearised. We call on all the global community, the Security Council, all the nations of the world now to work together to more rigorously than ever, enforce the sanctions that have already been imposed and ensure that North Korea is not rewarded for this continued and persistent breach of Security Council Resolutions, which as I said, are putting the peace and stability, the safety of the world, at risk.
Ends