Kim’s key promises in North’s denuclearisation plans
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to shut down the country’s nuclear test site in May and open the process to experts and journalists from South Korea and the US, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday.
The event may serve as a dramatic set-up to Kim’s crucial nuclear negotiations with President Donald Trump that may take place in the next few weeks amid widespread scepticism on whether the North will ever fully surrender its nuclear weapons.
Kim made the comments during his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday at a border truce village, where he also expressed optimism about his meeting with Trump, saying the US president would learn he’s “not a person” to fire missiles towards the US, Moon’s spokesperson Yoon Young-chan said.
Moon and Kim during the summit promised to work towards the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula, but made no references to verification or timetables. Seoul had also shuttled between Pyongyang and Washington to set up a potential meeting between Kim and Trump, which is expected next month or early in June.
“Once we start talking, the United States will know that I am not a person to launch nuclear weapons at South Korea, the Pacific or the United States,” Yoon quoted Kim as saying.
“If we maintain frequent meetings and build trust with the United States and receive promises for an end to the war and a non-aggression treaty, then why would we need to live in difficulty by keeping our nuclear weapons?” Yoon quoted Kim as saying.
North Korea announced this month it had suspended all tests of nuclear devices and intercontinental ballistic missiles and planned to close its nuclear testing ground.
Kim reacted to scepticism that the North would only be closing down the northernmost test tunnel at the site in Punggye-ri, which some analysts say became too unstable to conduct further underground detonations following the country’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September. In his conversation with Moon, Kim denied that he would be merely clearing out damaged goods, saying the site also had two new tunnels that were larger than previous testing facilities, Yoon said.
While the meeting ended with no new concrete measures on the nuclear stand-off, more substantial discussions on the North’s denuclearisation, it seems, will be reserved for a Kim-Trump summit.