SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said Saturday that it will dismantle its nuclear test site in less than two weeks, ahead of leader Kim Jong Un's summit with President Donald Trump next month. Trump welcomed the "gracious gesture."
In a statement carried by state media, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said all of the tunnels at the country's northeastern testing ground will be destroyed by explosion, and observation and research facilities and ground-based guard units will be removed.
Kim had already revealed plans to close the test site by the end of May during his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month. Analysts say that while the closure of the site is important, it doesn't represent a material step toward full denuclearization.
"A ceremony for dismantling the nuclear test ground is now scheduled between May 23 and 25," depending on weather, the Foreign Ministry's statement said, adding that journalists from the United States, South Korea, China, Russia and Britain will be invited to witness the dismantling.
The ministry said the North will continue to "promote close contacts and dialogue with the neighboring countries and the international society so as to safeguard peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and over the globe."
Trump, in a tweet Saturday, thanked North Korea for its plan to dismantle the nuclear test site, calling it "a very smart and gracious gesture!"
After the Moon-Kim meeting, Moon's office said Kim was willing to disclose the process to international experts, but the North's statement Saturday didn't address allowing experts on the site.
South Korea had no immediate response to the statement.
The North's announcement comes days after Washington announced that the historic summit between Kim and Trump will be held June 12 in Singapore.
Kim has said that when he meets with Trump, he is willing to discuss relinquishing his country's nuclear arsenal in return for security guarantees, the lifting of sanctions and other incentives from the United States.
Skeptics fear that Kim does not really intend to give up his nuclear weapons and is merely trying to soften his image, escape sanctions and make it more difficult for Trump to continue to threaten military action. But South Korean officials argue that Kim is willing to bargain away his nuclear weapons in return for ending hostilities and getting Washington's help to improve his country's economy.
Some analysts have downplayed the significance of North Korea's decision to shut down the site. They said that after six tests, all conducted in deep tunnels, the place has caved in and become too unstable for another test.
But when he met with Moon last month, Kim rebuffed the skeptics, saying that the test site still had two tunnels where nuclear tests could be conducted.
South Korea has said Kim has genuine interest in dealing away his nuclear weapons in return for economic benefits. However, there are lingering doubts about whether Kim would ever agree to fully relinquish the weapons he probably views as his only guarantee of survival.
During their meeting at a border truce village, Moon and Kim promised to work toward the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula but made no references to verification or timetables.
North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of "denuclearization" that bears no resemblance to the American definition. The North has been vowing to pursue nuclear development unless Washington removes its 28,500 troops from South Korea and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan.
Some experts believe Kim may try to drag out the process or seek a deal in which he gives away his intercontinental ballistic missiles but retains some of his shorter-range arsenal in return for a reduced U.S. military presence in the South. This could satisfy Trump but undermine the alliance between Washington and Seoul.
[NUCLEAR NORTH KOREA: Maps, data on country’s nuclear program]
Kim declared his nuclear force as complete in December, after North Korea's most powerful nuclear test to date in September and three flight tests of ICBMs designed to reach the U.S. mainland.
North Korea announced at a ruling party meeting last month that it was suspending all tests of nuclear devices and ICBMs, as well as the plan to close the nuclear testing ground.
Kim said during the meeting that the nuclear test site's mission had come "to an end" because the North had completed developing nuclear-capable intermediate-range missiles, ICBMs and other strike means.
The North also said for the first time at the meeting that it had been conducting "subcritical" nuclear tests. These refer to experiments involving a subcritical mass of nuclear materials that allow scientists to examine the performance and safety of weapons without triggering a nuclear chain reaction and explosion.
North Korea's reference to such activity is designed to communicate that even without underground testing, the country intends to maintain its nuclear arsenal and be a "responsible" steward of those weapons at the same time, said Andrea Berger, a senior analyst at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
Still, the closure of the underground testing site could be a useful precedent for Washington and Seoul as they proceed with the nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang, analysts say.
"Now that North Korea has accepted in principle that agreements should be verified, U.S. negotiators should hold them to this standard for any subsequent agreement," said Adam Mount, a senior defense analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. "It will make it more difficult for Kim Jong Un to deny inspections now that he has placed them on the table."
SENSE OF OPTIMISM
Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations World Food Program says he encountered a remarkable sense of optimism on a trip to North Korea last week and said he hoped donors would respond by providing more funding to help feed the country's children.
Visiting the country for the first time, David Beasley said he hoped North Korea's children would be the beneficiaries of what he called "this new spirit."
"I do believe everyone wants to open a new chapter in world history, turn the page and look to a brighter future," he said in an interview in Beijing on Saturday. "My thoughts are: Let's not throw cold water on that. Let's try to keep the momentum going."
The program estimates that more than 10 million of North Korea's 24.8 million people are undernourished, with 1 in 3 young mothers and children under age 5 suffering from anemia. It feeds about half a million women and children every month, including with porridge and high-energy biscuits, but says its food aid program is "severely underfunded."
The sanctions agreed to by the United Nations Security Council allow for humanitarian aid to flow into the country through U.N. agencies, on the condition that the United Nations monitors the aid to ensure it is not diverted to the government or military.
But many countries are skeptical about sending aid to a country -- except in extreme circumstances -- that could ultimately serve to support the regime or indirectly allow it to spend more money on its nuclear and missile program. World Food Program officials are also not given full access to the country to properly establish humanitarian needs.
But Beasley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina, said he had been given greater access than many of his predecessors, spending two days of his four-day trip visiting villages and meeting farmers, teachers, cooks and mothers, including a six-hour road trip from Pyongyang to the Chinese border, mostly along dirt roads with many stops along the way.
Beasley said he had held frank discussions with North Korean officials in Pyongyang about the need to grant World Food Program staff members greater access and more data about nutrition in the country, telling them, "We can't help you unless you help us."
In the past, he said, officials may have been hesitant to speak to people from the outside world, but Beasley said he had been "pleasantly surprised" by the openness he encountered and a willingness to learn from the program's expertise.
Information for this article was contributed by Kim Tong-Hyung of The Associated Press; by Choe Sang-Hun of The New York Times; and by Simon Denyer of The Washington Post.
A Section on 05/13/2018