Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop cautiously welcomed North Korea’s announcement of a halt in its nuclear and missile tests on Saturday (April 21), adding that Pyongyang needed to show verifiable steps to show it is genuine in abandoning its weapons programs.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country no longer needed to conduct nuclear tests or intercontinental ballistic missile tests because it had completed its goal of developing nuclear weapons, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
It was the first time Kim directly addressed his position on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programmes ahead of planned summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in next week and with US President Donald Trump in late May or early June.
Bishop, who has been in London as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), also criticised Russia’s role in blocking several UN Security Council resolutions for an independent investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
