PYONGYANG – North Korea has announced to suspend its nuclear and missiletests with immediate effect and abolish a nuclear test site, state mediaconfirmed on Saturday.
According to country’s official Korean Central News Agency, North Koreanleader Kim Jong-un said his country no longer needed to conduct nucleartests or intercontinental ballistic missile tests, signaling a visibleshift in the diplomatic overtures of the country.
“To guarantee suspension of nuclear tests in a transparent manner, therepublic’s northern nuclear test site will be abolished,” the KCNAcontinued.
The North Korea’s surprising decisions were made in a meeting of the rulingparty’s full Central Committee, which had been convened to discuss a ‘newstage’ of policies.
The committee unanimously adopted a resolution that called forconcentrating national efforts to achieve a strong socialist economy and“ground-breaking improvements in people’s lives”.
“To secure transparency on the suspension of nuclear tests, we will closethe republic’s northern nuclear test site,” the party’s resolution said.
Soon after the historic decision, the US and South Korea welcomed the moveand said it was a sign of progress and a promising start to upcoming talks.
US President Donald Trump also termed the suspension of nuke tests ‘goodnews for North Korea’.
In another tweet, the president also confirmed the termination of nucleartests, directly mentioning that the message was from 36-year-old Kim.
Moreover, South Korea also welcomed the decision with an official statementfrom the presidential office.
“North Korea’s decision is meaningful progress for the denuclearisation ofthe Korean Peninsula, which the world wishes for,” the presidential officesaid in a statement.
“It will create a very positive environment for the success of the upcominginter-Korean and North-US summits.” it added.
The decision comes weeks before ‘short and fat’ Kim Jong Un would bemeeting ‘Dotard’ Donald Trump, for which the US President has confirmedthat five locations were under consideration.