Nuclear test shutdown raises likelihood of Korean summit’s success

SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in viewed the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) decision to shut down its main nuclear test facility as a peace gesture ahead of the inter-Korean and DPRK-US summits.

“As a practical measure, North Korea (the DPRK) declared the discontinuance of nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile test-launches and the shutdown of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site,” Moon said at a meeting with his senior secretaries, according to the presidential Blue House.

Moon saw the DPRK’s decision as a “sincere measure” ahead of the inter-Korean and DPRK-US summits.

Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un will meet on Friday at the border village of Panmunjom. It is expected to be followed in May or early June by a meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

Kim said at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea last week that his country would suspend nuclear and missile tests, and close the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where all of Pyongyang’s six nuclear detonations were conducted.

China, the US, Russia and Japan have all expressed appreciation and support of the DPRK’s decision, Moon said.

Moon said the decision raised the possibility of the inter-Korean and DPRK-US summits being a success.

In response to Pyongyang’s peace gesture, the South Korean military has stopped blaring anti-DPRK broadcasts via loudspeakers along the military demarcation line as from midnight local time yesterday. – Xinhua