Cautiously optimistic about North Korean denuclearisation, the New Zealand politician once sent to the hermit kingdom for peace talks says there's a way to help the process along: give North Korea's economy a hands up.
Kiwi Foreign Minister Winston Peters - who in 2007 went to the secretive state in a bid to broker a deal - on Thursday gave his take on US President Donald Trump's recent efforts to a select committee in Wellington.
"We've got to keep our eyes wide open here and remember the history of this matter, but I think this time we just might be on the cusp of something seriously significant," he said.
"We hope that it is a decisive moment, but ... we'd want to see the evidence that the commitments were in fact, followed through."
However, Mr Peters had a different idea about what the best route to peace was.
"Personally, I've always believed that to ensure we've got a pathway forward that some countries should be looking seriously at helping North Korea to quickly transition into a modern economy," he said.
"It's a small price for us to play for the stability and security of the Korean peninsula."
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Thursday said the world needed to keep pressure on North Korea until it showed concrete steps towards getting rid of its nukes.
It was also announced on Thursday that South and North Korea were holding rare high-level military talks in a effort to reduce tensions across the border.
