Seoul (April 29, 2018): North Korea will shut down its nuclear test sites in May and invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States into the country to ensure “transparency” around its closure, said South Korea’s presidential office on Sunday.
It is the latest breakthrough on the peninsula ahead of a meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump, who said Saturday that talks could take place within “three to four weeks.”
A senior spokesman for South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Kim made the comments during a landmark summit Friday at the demilitarized zone between the two countries, when Kim became the first North Korean leader to step into South Korean territory since fighting ended in the Korean War in 1953.
Kim told Moon during the summit that he had no intention of targeting the US or the South with nuclear weapons, the South Korean President’s office said Sunday.
“The United States, though inherently hostile to North Korea, will get to know once our talk begins that I am not the kind of person who will use nuclear weapons against the South or the United States across the Pacific,” Kim was quoted as saying by Moon’s spokesman Yoon Young-chan on Sunday.
“There is no reason for us to possess nuclear weapons … if mutual trust with the United States is built through frequent meetings from now on, and an end to the war and non-aggression are promised.”
Kim had previously announced the conclusion of North Korea’s nuclear testing program and the shuttering of the Punggye-ri complex, saying on April 20 that it had already “completed its mission.”
Related News:
