SEOUL - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard pledged on April 24 to urge China to help tame North Korea and ease tension on the Korean Peninsula as part of efforts to ensure regional security.
Gillard, on a visit to Seoul as part of her whirlwind Asian tour, said Sydney was "concerned about continuing North Korean aggression" and vowed to "bring continued pressure on the North Korea regime for change."
"My message would be that it is not in China's interest to have instability on the Korean Peninsula," she told reporters.
She will leave for China, the communist North's major ally, on April 25 for the last leg of her Asian trip that began in Japan.
"The instability here on the Korean Peninsula is concerning to our region...that's why I'm putting such a focus on it in my discussions in the region," she said, calling the North's regime a "repressive dictatorship."
The isolated North heightened regional security concerns in November by disclosing an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant, which experts said could be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium.
Cross-border tension escalated in the same month following Pyongyang's shelling attack on a border island that killed four South Koreans, including two civilians and sparked a brief fear of war.
The six-party nuclear disarmament talks on the North, involving China, two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the U.S., have been on a standstill since Pyongyang stormed out in April 2008. The North staged its second nuclear test a month later.
Gillard admitted Australia was not part of the multinational disarmament efforts, but vowed to "play a role in assisting with pressure on North Korea."
"It's a hard regime to influence, but we've got to keep the pressure on, for them to show that they're genuinely prepared to change," she said.
As part of her three-day visit, Gillard also mourned on April 24 340 Australian soldiers who fell during the Korean War, in the ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of a battle at Gapyeong.
The battle, Australia's largest military action during the war, helped stop the Chinese "spring offensive" and proved crucial in preventing a Chinese breakthrough towards Seoul, Gillard said.
"That night the defining fight for the Australians in the Korean War began... this battle that stopped a breakthrough," she said, stressing Australia proved itself as "a reliable and courageous ally."
More than 17,000 Australian troops, as part of an U.N. multinational force, served during the war.
She also visited the truce village of Panmunjom straddling the tense border between the two Koreas, which have technically remained at war since the 1950-53 conflict ended with a ceasefire.
On April 25, Gillard will attend the ANZAC Day Dawn Service - Australia's memorial day - at the National War Memorial in Seoul and hold a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.
The two leaders will discuss a range of issues including ways to strengthen defense ties and to strike long-anticipated free trade agreement, Gillard said.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, left, and her partner Tim Mathieson visit the U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission meeting room April 24 as North Korean soldiers look in through the window at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demi (Lee Jin-Man / AFP via Getty Images)
"My message would be that it is not in China's interest to have instability on the Korean Peninsula," she told reporters.
She will leave for China, the communist North's major ally, on April 25 for the last leg of her Asian trip that began in Japan.
"The instability here on the Korean Peninsula is concerning to our region...that's why I'm putting such a focus on it in my discussions in the region," she said, calling the North's regime a "repressive dictatorship."
The isolated North heightened regional security concerns in November by disclosing an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant, which experts said could be reconfigured to produce weapons-grade uranium.
Cross-border tension escalated in the same month following Pyongyang's shelling attack on a border island that killed four South Koreans, including two civilians and sparked a brief fear of war.
The six-party nuclear disarmament talks on the North, involving China, two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the U.S., have been on a standstill since Pyongyang stormed out in April 2008. The North staged its second nuclear test a month later.
Gillard admitted Australia was not part of the multinational disarmament efforts, but vowed to "play a role in assisting with pressure on North Korea."
"It's a hard regime to influence, but we've got to keep the pressure on, for them to show that they're genuinely prepared to change," she said.
As part of her three-day visit, Gillard also mourned on April 24 340 Australian soldiers who fell during the Korean War, in the ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of a battle at Gapyeong.
The battle, Australia's largest military action during the war, helped stop the Chinese "spring offensive" and proved crucial in preventing a Chinese breakthrough towards Seoul, Gillard said.
"That night the defining fight for the Australians in the Korean War began... this battle that stopped a breakthrough," she said, stressing Australia proved itself as "a reliable and courageous ally."
More than 17,000 Australian troops, as part of an U.N. multinational force, served during the war.
She also visited the truce village of Panmunjom straddling the tense border between the two Koreas, which have technically remained at war since the 1950-53 conflict ended with a ceasefire.
On April 25, Gillard will attend the ANZAC Day Dawn Service - Australia's memorial day - at the National War Memorial in Seoul and hold a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.
The two leaders will discuss a range of issues including ways to strengthen defense ties and to strike long-anticipated free trade agreement, Gillard said.
