NKorea willing to end nukes for pledge

SEOUL, South Korea — Keeping diplomatic developments coming at a head-snapping pace, the South Korean government said Sunday that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, had told President Moon Jae-in that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States agreed to formally end the Korean War and promise not to invade his country.

In a confidence-building gesture before a proposed summit meeting with President Donald Trump, Kim also said he would invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States to watch the shutdown next month of his country’s only known underground nuclear test site.

In Washington, Trump officials spoke cautiously about the chances of reaching a deal and laid out a plan for the rapid dismantling of the North’s nuclear program, perhaps over a two-year period.

That would be accompanied by a “full, complete, total disclosure of everything related to their nuclear program with a full international verification,” said John Bolton, Trump’s new national security adviser.

The apparent concessions from the youthful leader were widely welcomed as perhaps the most promising signs yet of ending a standoff on the Korean Peninsula frozen in place since fighting in the Korean War ended 65 years ago.

But skeptics warned that North Korea has made similar pledges of denuclearization on numerous occasions with little or no intention of abiding by them.

A South Korean government spokesman, Yoon Young-chan, provided details of a summit meeting the two Korean heads of state held Friday.

“I know the Americans are inherently disposed