Kuwait Times

North, South Korea dismantle speakers

UN chief asked to verify test site shutdown

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SEOUL: North and South Korea began dismantlin­g loudspeake­rs that blared propaganda across their heavily fortified border yesterday, South Korea’s defense ministry said, fulfilling a promise made at last week’s historic summit. The moves are the first practical, if small, steps toward reconcilia­tion after Friday’s meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North’s Kim Jong Un.

Moon, meanwhile, asked that the United Nations help verify North Korea’s planned shutdown of its Punggyeri nuclear test site in a phone conversati­on yesterday with UN SecretaryG­eneral Antonio Guterres, a statement from the presidenti­al Blue House said. Guterres said the requests need approval from the UN Security Council, but he wanted to cooperate to build peace on the Korean peninsula and would assign a UN official in charge of arms control to cooperate with South Korea, the statement said.

Several days before Friday’s summit, the North surprised the world by declaring it would dismantle the test site to “transparen­tly guarantee” its dramatic commitment to stop all nuclear and missile tests. The Punggyeri site, where North Korea has conducted all six of its nuclear tests, consists of a system of tunnels dug beneath Mount Mantap in the northeaste­rn part of the country. Some experts and researcher­s have speculated the most recent and by far largest - blast in September had rendered the entire site unusable. But Kim said there were two additional, larger tunnels that remain “in very good condition”.

Trump likes the idea of meeting with Kim at DMZ

Border loudspeake­rs removed

Along the border, South Korea started taking down its loudspeake­rs yesterday afternoon, a defense official said. Activity at several spots along the border indicated North Koreans were doing the same, he said. For decades, with only a few breaks, the two sides have pumped out propaganda from huge banks of speakers as a form of psychologi­cal warfare. The South broadcast a mixture of news, Korean pop songs and criticism of the northern regime, while the North blasted the southern government and praised its own socialist system. As a sign of goodwill, the South had stopped its propaganda ahead of the summit, and the North followed suit.

The incrementa­l steps come amid speculatio­n about where Kim will meet U.S. President Donald Trump, who said their planned summit could take place in three or four weeks. Trump tweeted Monday that meeting Kim at the Peace House in the demilitari­zed zone, where Moon met Kim, would be an excellent venue. “There’s something that I like about it because you’re there, you’re actually there. Where, if things work out, there’s a great celebratio­n to be had on the site, not in a third-party country,” Trump later told reporters at the White House.

But a senior US official said Singapore was still high on the list of potential sites. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Saturday Singapore had not had any request to host the Kim-Trump meeting. South Korea’s presidenti­al Blue House seemed to welcome the prospect of hosting the meeting in Panmunjom, the border village where the Peace House is located. “Panmunjom is quite meaningful as a place to erode the divide and establish a new milestone for peace,” a senior presidenti­al official told reporters, asking not be identified because of the sensitivit­y of the matter. “Wouldn’t Panmunjom be the most symbolic place?”—

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 ?? — AFP ?? PAJU: South Korean soldiers dismantle loudspeake­rs that were set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitari­zed zone separating the two Koreas in Paju yesterday.
— AFP PAJU: South Korean soldiers dismantle loudspeake­rs that were set up for propaganda broadcasts near the demilitari­zed zone separating the two Koreas in Paju yesterday.
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