Australia, U.S. vow to pursue disarmament

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. Both countries denounced North Korea's recent launch and shared concerns about Iran's nuclear work. Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione commented that a goal of worldwide disarmament and a planned conference of nuclear nations could undermine the ambitions of fledgling nuclear states. "It helps you get other countries, for example, to join the Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict shiploads of North Korean missile technology being sent to other countries. It helps you to convince them to take stronger action to enforce U.N. resolutions," Cirincione said.