Southeast Asia leaders urge tough stance on North Korea

Southeast Asian leaders and Australia's prime minister today called on North Korea to end its nuclear program and urged UN countries to fully implement sanctions against the country.

Leaders at the first summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to be held in Australia issued a joint statement with the host country that also called for non-militarisation and a code of conduct in the contested waters of the South China Sea, where China has become increasingly assertive.

ASEAN leaders also said they were working to provide humanitarian assistance for the continuing crisis involving Muslim Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, addressed the matter "comprehensively" in meetings today.

On North Korea, the ASEAN-Australia joint statement urged North Korea to "immediately and fully comply with its obligations under all relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions," and called on all countries to implement sanctions.

Turnbull went further at a closing news conference, saying ASEAN and Australia had affirmed their commitment to respond strongly over the "grave concerns we share about North Korea's reckless and illegal nuclear missile programs." President Donald
Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, the current chair of ASEAN, said the bloc had been encouraged by negotiations for the summits and had "noted reports of North Korea's commitment to denuclearization and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear missile tests during this period."
On territorial conflicts with China, which like Australia is not a member of ASEAN, the statement said, "We emphasize the importance of non-militarization and the need to enhance mutual trust and confidence, exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities and avoid actions that may complicate the situation."
Lee said this was an issue for all ASEAN countries as it was "a security and stability question" that would "affect all ASEAN countries if it goes wrong."
He also said ASEAN policy meant it was "not able to intervene and to force an outcome" over the Rohingya crisis, in which more than 700,000 refugees have fled to neighboring Bangladesh amid a Myanmar military campaign that the UN has called "ethnic cleansing."