Remarks by the Vice President and Australian Prime Minister Turnbull at a Press Conference

beforeitsnews.com, April 24

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Excerpt:

Q ... This question is actually for both of you, if I may, does Australia have an increased role to play in helping moderate the North Korea threat? If so, what is that role? And could it, indeed, be a military one down the track?

 PRIME MINISTER TURNBULL: Well, thank you. We work very closely with our ally — our ally and our friends in the region. The global community is committed to the end of this reckless and dangerous conduct, and the challenge now is obviously for China because they have, as I’ve said, and this is not a political point, this is a statement of fact, China has the greatest leverage over North Korea. There is no question about that.

So I’ve made this point to Chinese leaders over a long period of time, in fact, before I was Prime Minister. It is self-evident that China has the opportunity and we say the responsibility to bring pressure to bear on North Korea to stop this reckless and dangerous trajectory upon which they are embarked.

Now we will work closely with the United States as we always do. At this stage, the support that we are providing at the level of diplomacy and public diplomacy — both public and private diplomacy is of critical importance. And we share the — we are quietly confident I would say that China will step up to this challenge and responsibility.
Vice President.

VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: For more than a generation there has been a consensus in the world community for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. In the 1990s, it was a subject of negotiations and an agreed framework was arrived at. Six-Party Talks would follow sometime later. The last administration embraced a policy of strategic patience. All along the way the regime in North Korea answered the entreaties of the world community with broken promises and with continued pursuit — headlong pursuit of their nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions. ...