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Australian defence minister to discuss WMD in China, Japan
SYDNEY (AFP) Sep 17, 2003
Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill will travel to Beijing and Tokyo next week for talks on halting the international trade in weapons of mass destruction, his office said Wednesday.

The trip follows the first exercises in the so-called Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), held off Australia's northwest coast at the weekend and widely seen as a bid to curtail North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Japan is considered the most likely target of any North Korean nuclear strike, while China was traditionally Pyongyang's strongest ally, having fought on the side of the Stalinist regime during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Hill's office said it was likely Hill would discuss the PSI in China and Japan.

Also on the agenda will be regional security issues, the war against terrorism and strengthening defence ties, the spokeswoman said.

The Australian reported Wednesday, quoting diplomatic sources, that Beijing's opposition to the initiative has softened after representations from the United States and Australia.

Sources close to the PSI also told the paper that Russia and China would be approached to take part in future PSI manoeuvres.

North Korea on Tuesday condemned the weekend initiative as a "prelude to nuclear war" and warned that it would increase its nuclear deterrent to cope with what it called the US "international blockade strategy".

"This is a wanton violation of the sovereignty of the DPRK (North Korea) and intolerable military provocations as it was a prelude to a nuclear war," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary.

The naval exercise, dubbed "Pacific Protector", featured a seizure of simulated weapons of mass destruction cargo from a Japanese ferry. Japan, the United States, France and Australia took part.

It was the first of 10 air, ground and sea drills to be launched by the US-led 11-nation grouping, set up earlier this year to stem the illicit trade in weapons of mass destruction. The participants insist the initiative is not specifically aimed at North Korea.

Inconclusive six-nation talks on the nuclear crisis were held in Beijing last month, involving both Koreas, China, Russia, the United States and Japan. New talks are to be held in November.

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