Trump credits sanctions and China influence for North Korea talks

Australia and the US have cautiously welcomed ‘possible progress’ with North Korea.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has cautiously welcomed Kim Jong-un’s apparent offer of talks on denuclearisation. Picture: Albin Lohr-Jones / Sipa USA

Australia and the US have cautiously welcomed “possible progress” with North Korea, as Donald Trump credited tough sanctions and China’s “help” for Kim Jong-un’s apparent willingness to discuss denuclearisation.

Mr Trump said he hoped North Korea was “sincere” in its readiness to impose a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests if it holds talks with the US, following fears of a war on the Korean ­peninsula.

The US President did not rule out meeting with the North Korean leader but conceded he did not know what would happen next.

Asked what was behind Kim’s openness to talk after months of heated rhetoric, he joked: “Me”.

“I think that they are sincere but I think they’re sincere also because of the sanctions and what we’re doing with respect to North Korea, including the great help we’ve been given from China,” Mr Trump said.

“But the sanctions have been very, very strong and very biting ... So I really believe they are sincere, I hope they’re sincere, we’re going to soon find out,” he added.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said it was “too early to be optimistic” about the North’s offer to discuss denuclearisation with the US.

“We are only at the starting line,” he told party leaders.

Amid the hope of easing tensions, the US determined Pyongyang used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate Kim’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam in Malaysia last year and imposed more sanctions yesterday.

“This public display of contempt for universal norms against chemical weapons use further demonstrates the reckless nature of North Korea and underscores that we cannot afford to tolerate a North Korean (weapons of mass destruction) program of any kind,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

A senior US official said a dialogue with North Korea had remained an option since the earliest days of Mr Trump’s presidency but stressed that Kim’s “enormous” nuclear weapons industry was continuing at pace.

“If their plan is simply to try to buy time in order to continue building their arsenal, talks aren’t going to get very far at all,” the ­official said.

US National Intelligence ­Director Dan Coats told the Senate armed services committee: “We have seen nothing to indicate … that (Kim) would be willing to give up those weapons.”

The US official’s warning was echoed by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who said North Korea had a record of not always doing what it claimed it would.

“We will see if it leads to some kind of outcome. We have seen this before,” she said from New York. “But any opportunity to gain some understanding of North Korea’s intentions should be taken.”

She said Kim’s apparent desire for talks with the US was the result of economic and diplomatic pressure on the rogue regime.

“Australia has been part of an international effort to exert maximum economic and political pressure on North Korea,” she said. “I believe that has worked to the extent that North Korea is now seeking to talk to the United States.”

She noted Pyongyang was still in direct defiance of numerous UN Security Council resolutions, but said any lessening of tensions should be welcomed.

Additional reporting: Agencies