Senator LUDLAM-I will go to a couple of specific questions, if I may, on recent events in North Korea.
First of all I have a couple of general questions on the situation in North Korea. I gather that Australia does not have a mission in Pyongyang, and has not for some time, and that the North Korean embassy in Canberra closed in 2008. Is that correct?

Mr Fletcher-Yes, that is correct.

Senator LUDLAM-And what were the circumstances of the closure of the embassy? Did they withdraw?

Mr Fletcher-They decided to pull out their mission.

Senator LUDLAM-I am just wondering whether there has been any communication, formally or informally, between DFAT officials or the Minister for Foreign Affairs with representatives of the North Korean government as a result of the nuclear weapons tests?

Mr Fletcher-I do not think we have had any direct contact in the week since that test. Our ambassador designate to Pyongyang will be visiting there quite shortly-I think in the middle of June-to present credentials and will make use of that visit to convey our position.

Senator LUDLAM-Can you tell us how an ambassador designate position works?

Mr Fletcher-He is accredited to the Republic of Korea and is in Seoul but from there he is accredited to both Mongolia and the DPRF. So it is non-resident accreditation.

Senator LUDLAM-Is that a recent position that we filled?

Mr Fletcher-We have had a non-resident ambassador to Pyongyang since about 2000. There was a period in the 70s when we had a mission there. Subsequent to that I think we did not have any accredited representatives. But in July 2000 we re-establish that non-resident accredited link. At the time the ambassador in Beijing was accredited.

Senator LUDLAM-Can you tell us the Australian government's position on further increasing sanctions
on North Korea after the nuclear tests given the responses that the regime and the DPRK have threatened?

Mr Fletcher-We certainly support a strong unified international response to what has been happening in relation to North Korea's nuclear program. The situation at the moment is that the United Nations Security Council is considering what response it will make and a resolution is being discussed between the countries directly concerned. We expect we will find out the outcome of that in the next few days. Probably sometime this week, we hope, there will be a resolution passed. We hope that resolution will include some stronger measures to communicate to the authorities in Pyongyang the international community's views on what they have been doing. We will need to consider whether in addition to that resolution-whatever it contains-there is scope for us to do anything separately.

Senator LUDLAM-Does Australia have any formal or informal role in guiding that resolution or are we entirely outside that process?

Mr Fletcher-We have conveyed our views to the P5 members and Japan and South Korea, which are directly involved in negotiating that resolution, including the position made clear by the Prime Minister on the weekend.

Senator LUDLAM-I am going to put this question to ASNO when we meet with them a bit later, but they are part of the department: are you aware of whether Australia's monitoring stations were part of detecting the test in North Korea?

Mr Fletcher-We do have ASNO here and they can answer that question.

Senator LUDLAM-Okay, I have a couple for ASNO.

Mr Carlson-Yes, I can inform you that Australian stations were part of the detection of the North Korean nuclear tests. Two seismic stations detected that event.

Senator LUDLAM-Can you just remind me where they are? I believe there is one just outside Darwin. Where is the other one?

Mr Carlson-There is one at Alice Springs.

Senator LUDLAM-Was that information then contributed to the CTBTO in Vienna?

Mr Carlson-Yes, it was.

Senator LUDLAM-While we have got you here, can you just tell us whether North Korea uses enriched
uranium or plutonium reprocessed from its plants for the weapons that it has?

Mr Carlson-At this stage we are waiting for other information, particularly detection of emissions from
the test, to be able to say for sure what the material was that was used in that explosion; but our understanding is that at this stage North Korea only has plutonium available in sufficient quantities to be able to produce nuclear weapons.

Senator LUDLAM-So they are not enriching uranium up to the degree which we suspect Iran is, for
example; they are using reprocessing?

Mr Carlson-There is some indication that North Korea has a uranium enrichment program but at this
stage there is almost zero information available on what the extent of that program is.

Senator LUDLAM-But it is believed that it was a plutonium device that was detonated last week?

Mr Carlson-Yes, we have a high degree of confidence that it was based on plutonium.

Senator LUDLAM-For the benefit of the committee, can you tell us about the sort of technology that the North Koreans have access to that would allow them to detonate a weapon 500 metres below the surface or however deep it was and how difficult is it to take a device like that and to weaponise it-to put it on the end of a cruise missile, for example?

Mr Carlson-That would require a substantial amount of work. For a start it would need to be ‘miniaturised', which is what the term is in jargon, to be reduced to the size necessary to fit on a missile. Secondly, and this is another jargon term, it would need to be ‘ruggedised'-in other words, it would have to be designed in such a way as to withstand the stresses of acceleration, deceleration and re-entry in the flight of a missile. So our belief is that if North Korea is determined to go down that path then it has quite a deal of development work ahead of it.

Senator LUDLAM-Is it worth even attempting to guess in what period of time they could develop that
sort of technology or is that just too difficult to gauge?

Mr Carlson-I do not think I would like to speculate but it would be some years.

Senator LUDLAM-I do have some questions that are related to ASNO but we should probably come
back to those a bit later. Mr Fletcher, are you able to tell us, particularly from the Australian position that has been taken within the UN Security Council, whether the Australian government's position is to invoke a resolution under chapter 6 or chapter 7 of the UN charter?

Mr Fletcher-At the moment our position is simply that the existing resolution, 1718, which dates from
the previous test, should be implemented fully and that further measures should be adopted by the UN Security Council. We have not talked about anything under the charter.

Senator LUDLAM-So there is no conversation at an Australian government level about authorising
military action or through the UN?

Mr Fletcher-No.

Senator LUDLAM-Has the minister made specific representations to China on this issue about actions
the Chinese government might take?

Mr Fletcher-Minister Smith has had a number of conversations with his counterparts, and I believe he
will be talking to the Chinese foreign minister tomorrow.