Kim suspends nuclear tests ahead of summit
■ Trump calls it good news for world and a big progress
North Korea said on Saturday it would immediately suspend nuclear and missile tests, scrap its nuclear test site and instead pursue economic growth and peace, ahead of planned summits with South Korea and the United States.
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 the weapons, the state- run Korean Central News Agency ( KCNA) said.
Kim is scheduled to hold talks with South Korean President Moon Jae- in next week and with US President Donald Trump in late May or early June.
The pledge to halt the development of nuclear weapons, initiated by his grandfather, would mean a significant reversal for Kim, 34, who for years has celebrated such weapons as a pillar of his regime’s legitimacy and power.
A testing freeze and commitment to close the test site alone would fall short of Washington’s demand that Pyongyang completely dismantle all its nuclear weapons and missiles.
But announcing the concessions now, rather than during summit meetings, shows Kim is serious about decentralisation talks, experts say.
“The northern nuclear test ground of the DPRK will be dismantled to transparently guarantee the discontinuance of the nuclear test,” KCNA said after Kim convened a plenary session of the Central Committee of the ruling Worker’s Party on Friday. The North’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. — Reuters
Kim is scheduled to hold talks with South Korean President Moon Jae- in next week and with US President Donald Trump in late May or early June North Korea has agreed to suspend all nuclear tests and close up a major test site. This is very good news for North Korea and the World — big progress! — Donald Trump
Seoul, April 21: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he would halt nuclear tests and intercontinental missile launches, in a Saturday announcement welcomed by US President Donald Trump ahead of a much- anticipated summit between the two men.
Pyongyang’s declaration, long sought by Washington, will be seen as a crucial step in the fast diplomatic dance on and around the Korean peninsula. It comes less than a week before the North Korean leader meets South Korean President Moon Jae- in for a summit in the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, ahead of the eagerlyawaited encounter with Trump himself.
But Kim gave no indication Pyongyang might be willing to give up its nuclear weapons, or the missiles with which it can reach the mainland US.
The North had successfully developed its arsenal, including miniaturising warheads to fit them on to missiles, Kim said, and so “no nuclear test and intermediate- range and inter- continental ballistic rocket test- fire are necessary for the DPRK now”.
As such the North’s nuclear testing site was no longer needed, he told the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, according to the official KCNA news agency.
The party decided that nuclear blasts and ICBM launches will cease as of Saturday — the North has not carried any out since November — and the atomic test site at Punggyeri will be dismantled to “transparently guarantee” the end of testing.
Within minutes of the report being issued, Trump tweeted: “This is very good news for North Korea and the World — big progress! Look forward to our Summit.” Seoul too welcomed the announcement, calling it “meaningful progress” towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. But Kim offered no sign he might be willing to give up what he called the North’s “treasured sword”, saying its possession of nuclear weapons was “the firm guarantee by which our descendants can enjoy the most dignified and happiest life in the world”.