Show of Unity: NKorea to Abolish Key Missile Facilities

Local Editor

Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in visited the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation Thursday for a show of unity after their North-South summit gave new momentum to Pyongyang's negotiations with Washington.

North Korea said Wednesday that it would permanently abolish its key missile facilities in the presence of foreign experts, in a new gesture by leader Kim Jong Un to revive faltering talks with Washington over his country’s nuclear program.

After a summit in Pyongyang, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the North was also willing to close its main nuclear complex but only if the United States took unspecified reciprocal action.

Kim pledged to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” during his two meetings with Moon earlier this year and at his historic June summit with Trump in Singapore.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Pyongyang, the two Korean leaders agreed to turn the Korean Peninsula into a “land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats.”

Kim said he would visit Seoul in the near future, in what would be the first-ever visit to the South Korean capital by a North Korean leader.

Kim’s latest promises come days before Moon meets US President Donald Trump in New York at the UN General Assembly next week.

As a next step, North Korea will allow experts from “concerned countries” to watch the closure of its missile engine testing site and launch pad in the northwestern town of Dongchang-ri, according to a joint statement signed by Moon and Kim. The facilities were a key test center for North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the United States.

The North also “expressed its readiness” to take additional measures, such as a permanent dismantlement of its main nuclear facilities in Yongbyon should there be unspecified corresponding action from the United States, according to the statement.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team