Steve Quayle News Alerts

July 14, 2003
By Political Reporter SAMANTHA MAIDEN in Canberra

WAR remained an option to combat North Korea's nuclear threat, Prime Minister John Howard warned yesterday at the start of a seven-day Asian tour.

Playing down the controversy of a forged document that was used to justify the Iraq war, Mr Howard said that issue had been "blown out of all proportion".

Australia's warning to North Korea came as officials there warned the 11-nation naval blockade, proposed by the Proliferation Security Initiative summit in Brisbane last week to intercept pirate ships believed to be smuggling drugs and weapons to fund its nuclear program, could trigger a "new war". Mr Howard touched down last night in the Philippines capital of Manila.

He will arrive in South Korea on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the 1953 Armstice Agreement – a Korean peace deal the North recently has threatened to scrap.

"That is a big worry. No one should underestimate the seriousness of what is involved," he said. "North Korea is a rogue state."

Asked if Australia would join any future military action against North Korea, Mr Howard said: "We are at the moment going to take part in interdiction exercises.

"We obviously keep open what options we might pursue after that. We are engaged, we're concerned, we've been in the forefront of diplomatic efforts but it's important the world community speak with one voice and as many people as possible be part of that voice."

He said the proposed naval blockade could be valuable because "if some time down the track some other kind of action was required, people would be better prepared".

North Korea has threatened to unleash missiles aimed at South Korea and Japan if the US intervenes, describing the US-led blockade as a "grave criminal act", "unreasonable terrorism in the sea and a gross violation of international law".

"Such brigandish naval blockade of the US is as dangerous an act as as igniting a new war on the Korean peninsula," the DPRK official news agency warned. "In case the US conducts naval blockade against the DPRK and lays an 'international siege' to it, this may soon lead to the total abrogation of the armstice agreement. There is no need to explain what this means."

Labor spokesman Kevin Rudd said he wanted evidence the international maritime laws governing the proposal for blockade were sound and that "we are not simply inventing it as we go along".

"We've got to make sure the measures we implement here don't make the problem worse, but in fact reduce the threat from North Korea and the threat of proliferation," Mr Rudd told the Ten Network.

Before his departure for South Korea, the Philippines and Japan to discuss regional security, terrorism and trade, Mr Howard responded with "what's the next question ?", when asked if he should resign over the Iraqi intelligence issue.

Mr Howard's intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Defence Intelligence Organisation now have admitted they were warned of doubts about a document purporting to show Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Africa.

ONA, DIO and DFAT, however, maintain they never told Mr Howard, Defence Minister Robert Hill or Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Mr Howard denied suggestions there was a culture of "hear no evil, see no evil" in his government. "That's wrong. Worse than that, it's insulting and offensive to the professionalism of the men and women who work in the intelligence agencies," he said. "If I'd have known of this shock-horror revelation that's come out this week, it wouldn't have made one jot of difference to the decision my government took."

Mr Rudd said: "I think this says everything of John Howard's arrogance, as if to say that it was only a matter for him, the Australian people didn't need to know the full picture at the time as we're about to go off to war as a nation."

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6748484%255E911,00.html