Kim’s pledge to close test sites triggers US response

A LANDMARK summit between North and South Korea ended with the ultimate symbolic gesture yesterday, when Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, thrust their arms in the air and linked hands on the peak of Mount Paektu.

The 9,000-ft mountain on the border with China, which is considered to be the mythical birthplace of the Korean people, was an apt choice to conclude a three-day summit that aimed to foster peace between the two countries and contain the threat of nuclear war.

As a South Korean pop singer accompanying the group burst into a rendition of a beloved folk song, with the two First Ladies singing along with gusto, the jovial mood could not have been more different from this time last year, when the two countries appeared to be on the brink of conflict.

Mr Moon had arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday, becoming the first South Korean leader to visit the North’s capital in 11 years, in a high-stakes attempt to overcome a stalemate between the US and North Korea over nuclear disarmament. He returned to Seoul triumphant yesterday, having secured a pledge from Kim to shut down permanently a key missile test facility in the presence of international observers and possibly to destroy the country’s main nuclear complex if the US agrees to unspecified reciprocal measures.

While analysts cautioned that the moves would achieve little in terms of persuading Kim to give up his nuclear weapons, the concessions were enough to kick-start negotiations with Washington. Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, praised the “important commitments” and immediately invited his North Korean counterpart to meet next week in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.