North Korea agrees to invite US experts to shut down Nuclear test site next month
North Korea promised to close its atomic test site next month and
invite US weapons experts to the country as Donald Trump expressed
optimism about securing a nuclear deal in his summit with the secretive
regime.
The reported pledge from the North’s leader Kim Jong Un follows weeks
of whirlwind diplomacy that saw Kim and South Korean President Moon
Jae-in agree to pursue the complete denuclearisation of the peninsula
during a historic summit on Friday.
“Kim said, during the summit with President Moon, that he would carry
out the closing of the nuclear test site in May,” Seoul’s presidential
spokesman Yoon Young-chan said. Kim said he “would soon invite experts
of South Korea and the US as well as journalists to disclose the process
to the international community with transparency”, Yoon added.
Tension has been high on the flashpoint peninsula since last year
when the North carried its sixth and most powerful atomic test and
test-fired missiles capable of reaching the US mainland. “Kim said ‘the
US feels repelled by us, but once we talk, they will realise that I am
not a person who will fire a nuclear weapon to the South or the US or
target the US,” according to Yoon. “If we meet often (with the US),
build trust, end the war and eventually are promised no invasion, why
would we live with the nuclear weapons?'” Kim also slammed speculation
during his meeting with Moon that the Punggye-ri test site was already
unusable after an underground tunnel there reportedly collapsed. “As
they will see once they visit, there are two more tunnels (in the test
site) that are even bigger… and they are in good condition,” he was
quoted as saying.
.The US leader has been eager to play up his role in achieving a
breakthrough with Pyongyang through his “maximum pressure” campaign
involving tough rhetoric, strengthened global sanctions and diplomatic
efforts to further isolate the regime. “Months ago, do you remember
what they were saying? ‘He’s going to get us into nuclear war, they
said,'” Trump told supporters in Washington Township, north of Detroit.
“No, strength is going to keep us out of nuclear war, not going to get
us in!” he added. But Trump also sounded a note of caution, saying he
was prepared to walk away if US demands for North Korea to relinquish
its atomic arsenal in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way were
not met.
His remarks came as his new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told ABC
News he had a “good conversation” with Kim during his secret visit to
Pyongyang over Easter weekend, adding that Kim was “prepared to… lay out
a map that would help us achieve” denuclearisation.
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