Atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Friday welcomed a pledge by the leaders of two Koreas to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.

"It marks an important chapter in the nuclear history of the Korean Peninsula," said Toshiyuki Mimaki, the 76-year-old vice chairman of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-Bomb Sufferers Organizations.

Mimaki said he hopes the agreement by South Korean President Moon Jae In and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to pursue "complete" denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula would prompt other nuclear-armed countries to follow suit.

The two leaders also agreed to strive to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War in a declaration following the first inter-Korean summit in over a decade.

At the same time, Mimaki is worried about North Korea's record of broken commitments on giving up its nuclear program.

"We would like to closely watch how they actually act toward the complete denuclearization," he said.

(Toshiyuki Mimaki, center. File photo)

Kim Chin Ho, chief of the council of Korean atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima Prefecture, was optimistic after the declaration was released.

"Denuclearization marks a new step toward the unification of the Korean Peninsula. There will be a U.S.-North Korea summit soon, and I want the United States and others to make their moves as well," Kim said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his willingness to meet the North Korean leader by early June but he recently said he will do so only if it advances the interests of the United States.

In Nagasaki, where the second atomic bomb was dropped after Hiroshima in the final stage of World War II, atomic bomb survivors voiced their hopes for the denuclearization of the peninsula.

"Nuclear weapons must be removed for sure. I hope they will make efforts so that (denuclearization) will not end up just as a goal," said Sakue Shimohira, 83, who has been telling her experience of the atomic-bomb attack to young people.

"I want the Japanese government to lead the discussions" to achieve the goal of denuclearization, Koichi Kawano, 78, a member of a group supporting the atomic bomb survivors, said.