Australia urges restraint in Korea

Australia could conceivably be drawn into military action if it flares in Korea, due
to its ANZUS treaty obligations, but Canberra has always urged restraint in the
volatile region, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd says.
Tensions between North and South Korea have heightened in the past week after North
Korea sent a barrage of ammunition into South Korean territory, killing two people
and destroying several houses.
North Korea has warned that naval exercises by the US and South Korea in the region
on Sunday could have dire consequences.
The four-day exercise involving a US aircraft carrier began at 8am (1000 AEDT) on
Sunday, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
Mr Rudd said it was important not to jump to conclusions about what could happen next.
"But we are watching this with razor sharp eyes at the moment," he told the Nine
Network on Sunday.
Mr Rudd said the South Korean government had exercised extraordinary restraint after
the sinking of one of its naval ships earlier this year, as well as the latest round
of shelling in its territory and the bolstering of North Korea's nuclear
capabilities.
"But there are limits within a democracy about what the people of South Korea will
be expecting from its government about the massive provocation from the North," he
said.
Mr Rudd said as South Korea's friend and ally, Australia was constantly urging
restraint.
"But we don't see much restraint from the other side," he said.
Australia is not a formal signatory to the 1954 armistice but has alliance
obligations through the ANZUS treaty of 1951 with the United States.
On Tuesday last week, about 50 North Korean shells landed on the South Korean border
island of Yeonpyeong near the tense Yellow Sea border, damaging dozens of houses and
sending plumes of thick smoke into the air.
North Korea also staged an artillery drill on Friday within earshot of Yeonpyeong
and warned that the upcoming US-South Korean naval exercise heightens the risk
ofwar.
Mr Rudd said the ANZUS treaty was clear that if there were attacks on the allies'
armed forces in the Pacific area, Australia would have to act to meet the common
danger.
"That does not dictate an immediate course of military actions under these sorts of
scenarios but we need to be very mindful of the fact that when our forebears laid
down this alliance these considerations were taken into account."
Mr Rudd stressed it was important for him to be cautious and measured in his language.
"But I do simply state the obvious, that under our alliance obligations with the
United States, article four of the ANZUS treaty is clear about our requirements to
act to meet the common danger."