Pyongyang to close nuke test site in May

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to shut down the country’s nuclear test site in May and open the process to experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday.

Kim made the comments during his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday at a border truce village.

Moon and Kim during the summit promised to work toward the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, but made no references to verification or timetables.

North Korea this month announced it has suspended all tests of nuclear devices and intercontinental ballistic missiles and plans to close its nuclear testing ground.

Kim reacted to skepticism that the North would only be closing down the northernmost test tunnel at the site in Punggye- ri, which some analysts say became too unstable to conduct further underground detonations following the country’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September. In his conversation with Moon, Kim denied that he would be merely clearing out damaged goods, saying that the site also has two new tunnels that are larger than previous testing facilities, Yoon said.

The Friday summit between Moon and Kim kicked off a global diplomatic drive to deal with the North’s nuclear and missile threats, which after a flurry of weapons tests last year involve purported thermonuclear weapons, developmental ICBMs and quick-fire solid-fuel missiles.

While the meeting ended with no new concrete measures on the nuclear standoff, the more substantial discussions on the North’s denuclearization — including what, when and how it would occur — were always going to be reserved for a Kim-Trump summit.

Seoul has said Kim expressed genuine interest in dealing away his nuclear weapons. But North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of “denuclearization” that bears no resemblance to the American definition, vowing to pursue nuclear development unless Washington removes its troops from the Korean Peninsula and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan. MDT/AP