Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has cautiously welcomed North Korea's announcement that it will conduct no more nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests and will shut down its atomic test site, but said the country had made promises in the past and failed to honour them.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country no longer needed to conduct nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests because it had completed its goal of developing nuclear weapons, the Korean Central News Agency said.
Ms Bishop says North Korea must comply with numerous United Nations resolutions banning its weapons program.
SBS
"In the past North Korea has made promises and then failed to honour them, so we need to see verifiable steps that it will abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic weapons programs," she told reporters in London on Saturday.
In a tweet, US President Donald Trump said the announcement showed "big progress".
"North Korea has agreed to suspend all Nuclear Tests and close up a major test site. This is very good news for North Korea and the World - big progress! Look forward to our Summit," Mr Trump wrote.
North Korea has said its nuclear and missile programs are necessary deterrents against US hostility.
AAP
It conducted numerous missile tests, with the aim of being able to hit the US with a nuclear bomb.
"This has always been our concern, that the previous international policy of strategic patience enabled North Korea, in defiance of numerous UN Security Council resolutions, to continue building capability in its intercontinental ballistic and nuclear weapons programs," Ms Bishop said.
"The prospect of talks between North Korea and the US is one that we must pursue and it's a sign that North Korea may well be genuine in looking to denuclearise in the longer term.
"But we must remember we've seen this before."
