N. Korea to destroy nuclear site ahead of US summit

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea will destroy its nuclear test site later this month, ahead of a summit with the United States, it said Saturday, pledging to blow up its tunnels in front of invited foreign media.

US President Donald Trump praised the North's decision to dismantle the Punggye-ri test site in a ceremony scheduled between May 23-25, the latest step in leader Kim Jong Un's charm offensive.

''Thank you, a very smart and gracious gesture!'' Trump tweeted.

Dialogue brokered by Seoul has seen US-North Korea relations go from trading personal insults and threats of war last year to a summit between Kim and Trump due in Singapore on June 12.

But sceptics warn that Pyongyang has yet to make any public commitment to give up its arsenal, which includes missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Washington is seeking the ''complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization'' of the North and stresses that verification will be key.

Punggye-ri, in the northeast of the country, has hosted all six of the North's nuclear tests, the latest and by far the most powerful in September last year, which Pyongyang said was an H-bomb.

Kim has declared the development of the North's nuclear force complete and that it had no further need for the site.

The latest measures will see the tunnels of the test site blown up and their entrances completely blocked, Pyongyang's foreign ministry said, according to the official KCNA news agency.

All observation facilities and research institutes would be removed, along with guards, it said, ''and the surrounding area of the test ground be completely closed."

Reporters from China, Russia, the United States, Britain and South Korea would be allowed to cover the event on site to show it ''in a transparent manner."

Limits on foreign journalists were due to space constraints, it said, as the site was in an ''uninhabited deep mountain area."

South Korea welcomed the announcement, which signalled the North's willingness to carry out its pledges ''not just in words but in action."