Australian Prime Minister John Howard said today that he talked with US
President George W. Bush overnight about an upcoming UN Security Council
resolution on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) following its
first nuclear test on Monday.
"We talked about the progress with the Security Council resolution," Howard
told Australia's Southern Cross Broadcasting radio.
"The president is cautiously optimistic that a strong resolution with the
support of the major powers in the Security Council will be passed," he said.
"And there will therefore be some consequences flowing from that, it's not
completely tied up but he is quite optimistic," Howard said.
Howard said Australia would not act without an internationally sanctioned
understanding and until diplomatic means had been exhausted.
"It's a real dilemma because nobody wants military conflict but you are
dealing with a country that doesn't seem to respond to the sort of pressure and
the sort of situations that other countries respond to -- it's not rational," he
said.
"If there were for example some kind of trade embargo sanctioned by the
Security Council under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, then it would be
responsible for Australia to participate along with a lot of other countries in
enforcing those sanctions," he said.
