Transcript of interview with Eddie McGuire, Triple M Breakfast

Subjects: North Korea, New Zealand mine disaster

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

25 November 2010

EDDIE MCGUIRE: What a pleasure it is this morning to speak to the Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd in Canberra. Good morning Kevin.

KEVIN RUDD: Good morning.

EDDIE MCGUIRE: Welcome back to Triple M. It's great to have you with us.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks for having us on the program.

EDDIE MCGUIRE: Kevin, let's talk about the two big issues at the moment, to get your expertise on this – to either... just to give us the on the level account. There's a lot of nervous people in Australia. The Korean situation – South Korea and North Korea seeming – well, not seemingly, the North Koreans letting go some rockets in the last couple of days. What is going over there, Kevin, and what is the ramifications for us here in Melbourne?

KEVIN RUDD: Firstly this has been a serious development, but there is no reason for people to not be calm about it. There has been a measured and considered response by the South Korean Government, measured and considered response by the United States. But the reason it's a serious development is because the North Koreans have done three crazy things in recent months.

One, they sank a South Korean navy vessel – loss of nearly 50 sailors. Two, they've revealed recently their program of what's called heavily-enriched uranium — that's the stuff that you put in to make nuclear weapons. And then this last few days of course we've had this unprovoked artillery attack on a South Korean island.

My fear, and my concern, and I've said this in the course of the last couple of days Eddie, is if the North Koreans were to do something else like this I'd begin to worry about adding one further spark to the tinderbox, but under current circumstances, responses have been calm, they've been measured, they've been controlled, and I've been in touch with the South Korean Foreign Minister, the Japanese Foreign Minister, and the US Assistant Secretary of State, and we're coordinating our responses accordingly.

EDDIE MCGUIRE: Kevin, it seems like the international world's response has been if you've got the mad horse, if you like, and just put it in the yard by itself – let it go – keep an eye on it. But if it does get out and start going berserk we'll have to do something about it then. Is that sort of a reasonable analogy?

KEVIN RUDD: Well the regime in North Korea certainly causes the rest of the world a huge headache. There are 192 members of the United Nations. This regime is right out there. The problem is there's no neat paddock for these people.

EDDIE MCGUIRE: Yeah.

KEVIN RUDD: When they are starting to acquire nuclear weapons capabilities, the thing about nuclear weapons is that they are able to be launched elsewhere. That's why in the international community we, the Americans, Japanese, and the South Koreans are very, very vigilant on every development, every movement on the Korean peninsula, because it does have a capacity really to escalate.

There's one other thing, Eddie, as well. What we're doing also is working with the Chinese who have a particularly close relationship with North Korea going back to the days of the Korean War. Therefore what we've got to do is have more influence brought to bear by the Chinese to try and bring the North Koreans back under control.

LUKE DARCY: That was a question that I had for you, Kevin, given that your influence in China – and you speak Mandarin, you've had a great association over there – what would you like to see them do? Would you like to see them get a bit heavy-handed with North Korea, their – probably their closest ally. What sanctions are available to them?

KEVIN RUDD: I think the view across the international community is that it's time for China to step up more to the plate on this one. China historically has been pretty neutral about these sorts of questions. But when you've got the North Koreans effectively threatening the stability of our part of the world, I think the stakes have changed. Eddie asked before what's in it for the people here locally and the people in Melbourne, the people in Australia. If I was to drill down and get to two core points - so much of the prosperity we have had right across East Asia, including Australia, has rested on the back of peace and stability going back really to the end of the Vietnam War.

That underpins so much of the economic growth and investment that we've had - and Australian jobs have benefited from that.

Pull the rug from under that and then you've got a different set of circumstances as people have to worry about stability. Look for example at the stock market gyrations in response to what happened in North Korea just a couple of days ago. That's the first point.

The second of course is what I've touched on, which is North Korea's increasing nuclear weapons acquisition program and development program. That's a concern to everybody. And that's where we need to see the Chinese step up more to the plate.

MIEKE BUCHAN: Kevin, can you also give us your impression of what's happened in New Zealand? Obviously it's an absolute tragedy, that mining town's been affected forever. Can you give us your impression of what's been happening over there and what Australia's doing to show support?

KEVIN RUDD: Yeah. I was speaking this morning to our High Commissioner in New Zealand, Paul O'Sullivan, his team of consular officials have been doing a great job in Greymouth. They've been there from day one, been working with the Australian families. We've also dispatched, now, counsellors from the Department of Foreign Affairs and from Centrelink to Greymouth to work with families as well.

I've spoken with members of families directly, a couple of days ago. I've left messages of condolence with members of their extended families this morning. This is, as all of your listeners would understand, just a gut-wrenching situation. And our thoughts and our prayers go out to each and every one of them in what's been an extraordinarily difficult time.

EDDIE MCGUIRE: Kevin, thanks for taking the time this morning. We know you're extremely busy. And just on a personal note as we head towards our Christmas break soon, thank you for all your support.

You joined us on the Hot Breakfast on the very first show when you were Prime Minister, and you've always made yourself accessible to us. We had your wonderful daughter on here with her book a couple of months back.

Kevin, thank you for taking the time to speak directly to the Triple M listeners here in Melbourne.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks Eddie, and I look forward to catching up with you in the studio in Melbourne when I'm next down there.

EDDIE MCGUIRE: Good on you mate, thanks very much. Kevin Rudd joining us – Foreign Minister and as you can see, Kevin no longer the Prime Minister but very, very busy, and you know, as he said there, it's interesting, the Korean situation, the Dow Jones dropped over 100 points yesterday. It's up 100 and something points today. So you know, the softly, softly approach – and of course you've got all the dramas with Ireland and Spain and the EU at the moment.

But it does hit us. It does. We get, and people get a bit flaky around Christmas time as well as far as the share market's concerned. So these things – well, you might say, oh, Korea, it's miles away. It does have ramifications for us all. It's great to have Kevin Rudd.

END

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