Kim may dismantle main nuke site
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to permanently dismantle his main nuclear complex at Nyongbyon if the United States takes corresponding measures, South Korean President Moon Jaein said Wednesday after the two leaders held summit talks in Pyongyang to try to sustain nuclear diplomacy with Washington, which has been pushing hard for stronger disarmament moves from the North.
The Korean leaders also said the North would dismantle a missile engine test site and launch pad in the presence of outside inspectors, and would seek to host the 2032 Summer Olympics together. Moon also said Kim would try to visit Seoul sometime this year.
Washington wants North Korea to outline the entirety of its nuclear program, and its response to Wednesday’s joint statement from the Koreas remains to be seen. While the declaration appears to fall short of what Washington wants, President Donald Trump has maintained that he and Kim have a solid relationship and both leaders have expressed interest in meeting again after their highprofile June summit in Singapore. North Korea has been demanding a declaration formally ending the Korean War, which was stopped in 1953 by a ceasefire, but neither leader mentioned it as they read the joint statement.
“We have agreed to make the Korean Peninsula a land of peace that is free from nuclear weapons and nu clear threat,” Kim said as he stood by Moon’s side at the guesthouse where Moon is staying. “The road to our future will not always be smooth and we may face challenges and trials we can’t anticipate. But we aren’t afraid of headwinds because our strength will grow as we overcome each trial based on the strength of our nation.”
Kim gave the South Korean president an exceedingly warm welcome Tuesday, the first day of the summit, meeting him and his wife at Pyongyang’s airport — itself a very unusual gesture — then riding into town with Moon in an open limousine through streets lined with crowds of North Koreans, who cheered and waved the flag of their country and a blueandwhite flag that symbolizes Korean unity.
The madefortelevision welcome has become routine for their summits, after two meetings earlier this year.
The summit talks began at the ruling Workers’ Party headquarters where Kim and Moon were joined by two of their top deputies — spy chief Suh Hoon and presidential security director Chung Euiyong for Moon, and for Kim, his sister, Kim Yo Jong, and senior Workers’ Party official Kim Yong Chol, according to Moon’s office.
At the start of their meeting Tuesday, Kim thanked Moon for brokering the June summit with Trump.
Moon responded by expressing his own thanks to Kim for making a “bold decision” in a New Year’s Day speech to open a new era of detente and send a delegation to the South Korean Winter Olympics in February.
Moon also said the Koreas have agreed to establish a joint military committee to evaluate how to reduce tensions, maintain communication to defuse crises and prevent accidental clashes.
Moon said Wednesday the plans for the committee are part of a commitment to remove “any threat that could cause war” on the Korean Peninsula.
Moon’s government has been stressing the importance of reducing the conventional military threat between North and South Korea to prevent accidental clashes that can escalate into a nuclear conflict.
The Koreas first agreed to form a joint military committee in 1991, but the plans weren’t carried out because of turbulent relations between the archrivals.