Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday again urged South Korea to continue to restrain itself in the face of “massive provocations” from the North.
“We as South Korea’s friends and allies are constantly urging on them restraint, but we don’t see much restraint from the other side,” Rudd told Channel Nine.
As a major US-South Korean naval exercise began well south of the border yesterday, North Korea promised a “merciless military counterattack” against any intrusion into its territorial waters.
Rudd said Australia, which has a long-standing military alliance with the US, was watching developments with “razor-sharp eyes.”
He said as a signatory to the 1951 ANZUS treaty with the US, Australia was bound to support its most important ally if there were an attack on its US forces in the Pacific.
“Now, that does not dictate an immediate course of military action under those sorts of scenarios, but we need to be mindful of the fact that when our forebears laid down this alliance, these considerations were taken into account,” he said.
Rudd said given the situation, it was important to take a cautious and measured stance.
“I don’t think any of us should be in the business of unnecessarily stoking it up, but I do simply state the obvious, that under our alliance obligations with the United States, article 4 of the ANZUS treaty is clear about our requirements to act to meet the common danger,” he said.
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