North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday pledged to permanently dismantle his country’s major nuclear complex if the United States takes reciprocal actions, in talks with South Korean President Moon Jae In.
At the two-day summit in Pyongyang, held amid a deadlock in denuclearization negotiations between the three countries, Kim also promised to visit Seoul “in the near future,” possibly by the end of this year.
Kim reconfirmed the importance of close cooperation in achieving “complete” denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, which was agreed in June between him and U.S. President Donald Trump in return for security guarantees from Washington.
Trump is struggling to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programs without any preconditions, but the U.S. president tweeted the outcome of the latest summit was “Very exciting!
In May, North Korea dismantled Punggye-ri, its only known nuclear test site. By committing to taking additional denuclearization measures, Kim appears to be trying to reopen negotiations with Trump.
The two Koreas agreed to operate a joint military committee to discuss how to avoid conflicts and a number of agreements between him and Moon on bilateral issues, written in the declaration, also included resuming industrial and tourism projects when conditions are met and seeking to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympics.
A jointly-run industrial park at the North Korean border city of Kaesong and tours by South Koreans to the North’s Mt. Kumgang resort were suspended when tensions between the two divided countries escalated.
Moon, who has expressed willingness to serve as a broker between the United States and North Korea, is scheduled to hold a meeting with Trump on Monday in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, according to South Korea’s presidential office.
Reference: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un vows to scrap key nuclear complex if U.S. acts
