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.
Julie Bishop has responded to the North Korean announcement with caution. Source: 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.
Donald Trump said the announcement showed big progress was being made. Source: 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."
EU calls move 'positive step'
The European Union’s foreign affairs chief said on Saturday that North Korea’s announcement to stop nuclear tests was a positive step and called for an “irreversible denuclearisation” of the Asian country.
The North Korean move “is a positive, long sought-after step on the path that has now to lead to the country’s complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation,” Federica Mogherini said in a statement.
Ms Mogherini said the two forthcoming summits were opportunities “to build confidence and bring about additional, concrete and positive outcomes.”
She offered EU support to the talks “in any way possible, including through sharing our own experience of negotiations for denuclearisation.”
Mogherini said the EU position on North Korea remained at this stage unchanged, combining sanctions with open communication channels.
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China, North Korea’s sole major ally which has nevertheless been frustrated by its defiant development of weapons, welcomed the announcement saying it would ease tension and promote denuclearization.
“The Chinese side believes that North Korea’s decision will help ameliorate the situation on the peninsula,” a foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said in a statement.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also welcomed the North Korean statement but said it must lead to action.
“What’s important is that this leads to complete, verifiable denuclearization. I want to emphasize this,” Abe told reporters.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have historically been the main targets of North Korea’s anger.
“We’re all looking for evidence that Kim is really serious about negotiations, and announcements like this certainly suggest he is, and that he is trying to make clear to the world that he is,” said David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
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