Australian PM plans evacuation for Oz expats in Asia

Published:  7 Sep at 6 PM
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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is planning to evacuate 200,000 Australian expats living and working in Asia should the threat of war become imminent.

Australia’s federal government is closely monitoring the escalating tensions between North Korea and the USA and is planning a mass evacuation of 200,000 Australian expats working and living in Asia. The Australian PM is urging all Oz expats in South Korea, Japan and China to register their names and addresses with his government’s Smart Traveller website in order to be able to identify and evacuate them in the case of imminent war.

Turnbull is not alone in his belief that the risk of war is higher than just after the Korean War, but he’s the first PM to state his intention to get his people out if the worst happens. Travel advice for both Japan and South Korea has been updated in response to the increasing tensions, but the Australian government believes more provocations by Kim Jong Un or a gut reaction from the USA government cannot be ruled out, causing escalations with little or no advance warning. Expats and travellers who register their details will b able to receive phone alerts should the Australian government need to contact them in an emergency.

Experts are predicting hundreds of thousands of residents would die should North Korea attack a major Australian city with nuclear weapons. One simulation by US academic Alex Wellerstein predicts a huge area of Sydney and around 126,000 lives would be lost should a nuclear missile land on Pitt Street Mall. On Wednesday, Turnbull spoke for half an hour with President Trump, reporting the exchange was constructive, warm and focused on economic and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang. Turnbull’s take on the crisis is that, should Kim Jong Un carry out his threat of nuclear war, he would be signing his own suicide note, as a massive military response would destroy the country.
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