New US President Donald Trump's reference to North Korea as a nuclear power provoked responses in South Korea.

Yonhap News Agency says concerns may grow that the Trump administration would abandon the policy that calls for denuclearizing North Korea.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a statement after Trump's remarks.

It stresses that members of the international community, including South Korea and the US, have firmly and consistently supported denuclearizing North Korea.

It says the North would never be able to gain the status of a nuclear power under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The statement went on to say that Pyongyang is developing nuclear weapons in violation of the NPT and UN Security Council resolutions, but South Korea will closely work with the new US government and the international community to denuclearize North Korea.

In a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, South Korea's Acting President Choi Sang-mok said the 72-year-long South Korea-US alliance is like a deep-rooted tree that has born flowers of prosperity and never disturbed by winds.

He said he is convinced that as best partners, the two countries will produce more surprising results.