US asks for our help on North Korea nuclear weapons checks

The Trump administration has asked Australia to help verify the dismant­ling of Kim Jong-un’s North ­Korean nuclear program.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

The Trump administration has asked Australia to play a key role in helping to verify the dismant­ling of Kim Jong-un’s North ­Korean nuclear program.

The US has asked Australia whether it is willing to provide inspectors as part of an inter­national team to enter North Korea as soon as its receives ­ approval from Pyongyang.

The Australian understands the Morrison government has given in-principle agreement to the US request and has identified a range of expert Australians who could depart for North Korea at short notice, if required.

Sources say Australia could play a “significant” role in verifying the denuclearisation of North Korea if Pyongyang wants impartial nations to play a central role in the process.

Negotiations between the US and North Korea over denuclearisation have been fraught in recent months, with Pyongyang resisting US attempts to push the process forward.

Last month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang and said Mr Kim was now willing to let international inspectors into a key nuclear testing site.

In a move that could involve Australia inspectors, Mr Pompeo said Mr Kim had agreed to open the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site to inspectors. North Korea claims to have destroyed the site in May by blowing up tunnels but no independent inspectors were allowed to verify whether the site, which has been used to test some nuclear weapons, was destroyed.

Pyongyang has not yet laid down conditions for inspection of the site, which would be a key first step towards Mr Kim’s promise to Donald Trump at their Singapore summit this year that he would denuclearise his country.

“As soon as we get it logistically worked out, Chairman Kim said he’s ready to allow them to come in. There’s a lot of logistics that will be required to execute that,” Mr Pompeo said.

Australians have previously worked with international nuclear inspections teams in Iraq. Because Australia is not a nuclear weapons state, its inspectors would not be involved in dismantling nuclear weapons but would be involved in other ­aspects of the verification inspection program, including assessing North Korea’s missile capabilities.

The government could offer a range of experts to assist the inspection process, including geophysicists, seismic specialists, radiation experts, satellite ­imagery analysts and more.

Australia’s involvement would depend on approval from North Korea, which may see Canberra as an honest broker in the inspection process or it may view Australia as being too close to the US.

Although the US continues to claim negotiations with North Korea on denuclearisation are on track, the process has become bogged down by key differences. North Korea has become frustrated by Washington’s demand that it will lift economic sanctions against it only when it has dismantled its nuclear weapons, a process that would take years.

Pyongyang has also been angered by the administration’s reluctance to broker a declaration formally ending the 65-year-old Korean War.

The US has been unable to persuade Pyongyang to provide an inventory of all its nuclear weapons, its production and storage sites and its missile and rocket launchers. Despite the problems, Mr Trump has maintained progress is being made.