The country has announced that it will hold a ceremony between May 23 and 25 and even invited foreign journalists to witness what would be a transparent event.
Skeptics say Pyongyang may have ulterior motives for its announcement late Saturday, pointing to previous demonstrations where it carried out similar shows but commitment to deals it later revoked.
Kim Jong Un had revealed the plans to shut down the nuclear test site during his summit with Moon Jae-in last month. The North Korean leader also pledged to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula while he was there.
Kim told Moon last month that he would shut the site and invite foreign experts and journalists to view the dismantling.
The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that they would invite local press, but international media would be limited to journalists from China, Russia, South Korea, Britain and the United States, due to the limited space of the testing grounds.
Japanese journalists were not invited and it was unclear why not while media representatives from members of the now-defunct six-party talks on denuclearization, including the U.K., would likely be in attendance.
A senior South Korean government official reiterated that the decision to exclude Japan was likely part of Pyongyang’s strategy to bring Tokyo to the negotiating table.
Perhaps more importantly, Saturday’s statement did not mention invitations to experts and it was unclear if that offer had been rescinded. The announcement comes days after Washington announced that the historic summit between Kim and Trump will be held in Singapore on June 21.
South Korea has said Kim has genuine interest in relinquishing his nuclear weapons in return for economic benefits. Though, many experts doubt if Kim is really genuine about his claims or if these are just a front.
