Australia remains “very concerned” by North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Defence Minister Richard Marles has said as the US scales back military drills with South Korea.
US President Donald Trump announced the American move overnight, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile,” he posted on social media.
He also lambasted South Korea for refusing to join his “denuclearisation” efforts in Iran.
Mr Marles said on Tuesday that “what the United States does is a matter for it” but that Australia had a starkly different view on North Korea.
“Australia is very concerned about North Korea’s nuclear program, as well as its missile program,” he told a press conference with Japanese Defence Minister Koizumi Shinjiro.
In a nod to his Japanese colleague, Mr Marles noted that he visited Tokyo just after a North Korean missile test last year.
“We’re seeing that activity happen frequently and we remain very concerned about it,” he said.
Mr Marles went on to call South Korea “a critically important country”, both for Australia bilaterally but in terms of broader three-way defence co-operation with Japan, adding that the countries “have a shared strategic alignment”.
“In the challenging world that we face … North Korea is the author of quite a few of those challenges,” he said.
Japanese missiles in Australia
Mr Shinjiro was in Canberra to talk through deepening defence ties, including Japan testing hypersonic missiles at Australian ranges in what he said “would be a groundbreaking development second only to similar co-operation with the United States”.
He added that Tokyo wanted to “accelerate discussions about realising this objective”, which Mr Marles said the Australian side was “really excited about”.
Mr Shinjiro also hailed “successful” field trials of a jointly developed high energy laser.
The Boobook project in South Australia is a collaboration by Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group, Mitsubishi Electric Australia and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
It is a powerful laser system that can shoot down fast-moving enemy drones instead of wasting missiles.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said Boobook “demonstrates close collaboration with Japan, to develop cutting-edge technologies that address real capability needs for the Australian Defence Force”.
“Boobook is more than a technology project,” he said.
“It is a practical example of the growing defence industrial partnership between Australia and Japan, as well as the opportunities that partnership creates for both nations.”
‘Quasi ally’
During the press conference, Mr Shinjiro described Australia as a “quasi-ally” – an ally without a formal mutual defence pact underpinning the relationship.
“We have to lead and commit to leading the region in our collaboration in defence to contribute to the Indo-Pacific region’s peace and stability,” he said.
But how far the defence relationship could go remains unclear.
Japan can only activate its Self Defence Force if there is a clear and present danger to Japan.
It could help out an ally if not doing so would imperil it.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has shown some flexibility by green-lighting intelligence deployments in the Middle East, but Australian Institute of International Affairs chief executive Bryce Wakefield cautioned against reading too much into it.
“Although what constitutes a ‘survival-threatening situation’ remains a bit up in the air at the moment, Takaichi’s willingness to contemplate limited SDF deployments to the Middle East does not suggest that Japan’s constitutional constraints have fallen away,” he told NewsWire.
“When Trump pressed her over the Strait of Hormuz, she explicitly invoked the legal and constitutional limits on what Japan could do.”
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