NORTH KOREA TO SUSPEND NUCLEAR AND MISSILE TESTS
▶ US President Trump hails the announcement as ‘very good news’
North Korea’s leader pledged to immediately suspend nuclear and missile tests and shut down a nuclear test site as he prepares for meetings with the South Korean and US presidents.
Kim Jong-un said the nuclear test site in the north of the country had completed its mission and would be dismantled, the state Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday.
“I solemnly declare that we have accomplished credible weaponisation of nuclear forces,” Mr Kim said at a ruling party meeting.
“Our decision to suspend nuclear tests is part of the world’s important steps for nuclear disarmament and our republic will join global efforts to completely suspend nuclear tests.”
US President Donald Trump hailed the announcement as “very good news” for the world.
Mr Kim’s announcement comes ahead of talks this week with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and a summit with Mr Trump planned for May or June. While the North Korean leader reiterated that his regime had accumulated enough of a nuclear deterrent, the announcement of a plan to dismantle the test site suggests he is seeking to further ease tensions ahead of those meetings.
South Korea said the decision signified progress towards denuclearisation of the peninsula and would create favourable conditions for the meetings with Mr Moon and Mr Trump.
The two Koreas on Friday set up and tested a direct phone line for their leaders, and the first call between Mr Moon and Mr Kim is expected take place before their April 27 meeting.
China, the North’s only major ally, said Mr Kim’s decision would help “ameliorate the situation on the peninsula”, while Russia called on the South and the US to reduce their military activity in response.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Mr Kim’s promise must lead to action.
“What’s important is that this leads to complete, verifiable denuclearisation. I want to emphasise this,” he said.
The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini called for an “irreversible denuclearisation” of the country, while the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the North must “disclose its complete nuclear and missile programme in a verifiable way”.
North Korea had effectively halted weapons tests for the past five months, after firing a missile on November 29 believed to be capable of reaching any city in the US. After that launch, which prompted the most restrictive UN sanctions yet, Mr Kim declared his regime’s decades-long quest for nuclear weapons complete.
The North Korean leader then began making overtures for a rapprochement with Seoul, beginning with participation in the Winter Olympics hosted by the South in February.
But Mr Moon said on Thursday that implementing any deal with North Korea would be challenging. “We’re just entering the threshold for a dialogue,” he said. “It’s too early to be confident of the success of the talk.”
Vipin Narang, an expert on nuclear policy at MIT, told the Financial Times that closing a test site would not preclude North Korea doing atmospheric nuclear tests and missile tests could still be conducted under the guise of space vehicle launches.
“The big points aren’t new. They said in November they didn’t need to test any more after the HS-15 test and the purported thermonuclear test,” Mr Narang said.
“And the testing moratorium was pledged to [South Korea] in March so long as dialogue was progressing. So this just formalises that. It’s not much progress, in my opinion. Though many want to believe it is.”
But Joel Wit, a senior fellow at the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies called the announcement a “very serious initiative”.
“It fits right in with North Korean policy and what they’ve been saying for a while,” Mr Wit told Bloomberg. “They’ve decided that this is the moment to shift gears and to focus on developing their economy, end of story.”
The decision was made at a plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Worker’s Party of Korea on Friday, the KCNA said.
Mr Trump revealed last week that CIA director Mike Pompeo had recently been to North Korea and struck up a “good relationship” with Mr Kim at a secret meeting.
North Korea’s surprise suspension of missile testing and the promised closure of its testing site at Punggye-ri was branded “big progress” by Donald Trump. For the mercurial US president, troubled by domestic scandal, it is an opportunity to claim progress that was unthinkable just months ago. But ahead of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s decisive talks with his South Korean and US counterparts, a moment of reflection is required. Almost 30 years of post-Cold War consensus on the perils of nuclear proliferation have led us here. And while the recent thaw has come at lightning speed, cautious optimism is required when it comes to all things North Korean.
Just a few months ago – as Mr Kim and Mr Trump traded barbs amid a string of missile tests – the two seemed to be staggering towards a direct military confrontation. But Mr Kim will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday and Mr Trump next month. It follows the Winter Olympics in February, where the two Koreas successfully fielded unified teams, and incoming US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarked on a secret visit to North Korea over Easter. Add the suspension of missile testing and the mood music ahead of the summits sounds very positive. Mr Trump deserves credit for breaking new ground where previous administrations have failed. But deeper scrutiny shows the need for realism. Mr Kim’s claim that Pyongyang “has accomplished credible weaponisation of nuclear forces” could well be behind the decision to suspend missile testing. Indeed, North Korea’s nuclear programme has been quiet since last November, when Pyongyang tested a missile reportedly capable of reaching the US mainland. There is no indication that North Korea will surrender its weapons. For Mr Kim, the nuclear programme has served its purpose; he can now focus on North Korea’s feeble economy. Meanwhile, a summit with a sitting US president is in itself a prize that eluded Mr Kim’s predecessors. In 2009, after Bill Clinton visited Mr Kim’s father, it emerged the despot was desperate for a meeting with then president Barack Obama. It is a prize that Mr Trump may have yielded too easily.
Mr Kim appears to see nuclear proliferation as the best means by which to preserve his regime and give it global relevance. Often underestimated as a hysterical maniac, the North Korean strongman has broken new ground, purportedly completing his menacing nuclear programme and affording himself global prestige by manoeuvring himself into discussions with a sitting US president. Trust is everything in international diplomacy but North Korea has a legacy of broken promises. In 2003, the country withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, 18 years after signing it. And one year after agreeing to abandon its nuclear programme in 2005, Pyeongyang tested its first nuclear weapon. The recent breakthrough offers some optimism but the world should not lose sight of the threat Mr Kim still poses.