North Korea pledges to suspend nuclear and missile test, shutting down its atomic test site

Seoul, April 21: In a new welcoming move, North Korea will no more carry out nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests and will shut down its atomic test site. The party decided that nuclear blasts and ICBM launches will cease as of Saturday the North has not carried any out since November and the atomic test site at Punggye-ri will be dismantled to "transparently guarantee" the end of testing.

 

The North will shut down a nuclear test site in the country's northern side to prove the vow to suspend nuclear test from April 21. The decision was made in a meeting of the ruling party's full Central Committee, which had convened to discuss a "new stage" of policies.

The overall projects of the party and the country will be geared towards building of a socialist economy, and all our efforts will be made towards it. Pyongyang’s declaration, long sought by Washington, will be seen as a crucial step in the fast diplomatic dance on and around the Korean peninsula.

It comes less than a week before North Korea's leader Kim Jong UN meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, ahead of a much-anticipated encounter with Trump himself.

Within minutes of the report being issued, Trump tweeted: "This is very good news for North Korea and the World - big progress! Look forward to our Summit."

 

Seoul too welcomed the announcement, calling it "meaningful progress" towards the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

"It will create a very positive environment for the success of the upcoming inter-Korean and North-US summits," the South Korean presidential office said in a statement.

Pyongyang has made rapid technological progress in its weapons programmes under Kim, which has seen it subjected to increasingly strict sanctions by the UN Security Council, the United States, the European Union, South Korea and others.

Last year it carried out its sixth nuclear blast, its most powerful to date, and tested missiles it said are capable of reaching the US mainland.

Kim and Trump traded threats of war and personal insults as tensions ramped up, and even when there was an extended pause in testing, US officials said that it could not be interpreted as a halt without an explicit statement from Pyongyang.

South Korean envoys have previously cited Kim as promising no more tests, but Saturday's news is the first such announcement directly by Pyongyang.