North Korea has decided to shut down its main nuclear test site and suspend nuclear and missile tests, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday, ahead of historic summits with the South and the United States.

The decision, which was made at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea on Friday, is the latest indication that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is serious about phasing out the country's nuclear capacities.

Earlier this week, South Korean President Moon Jae In said North Korea had expressed a desire for complete denuclearization of the peninsula without setting the condition of a withdrawal of U.S. forces from the South.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Moon immediately welcomed Pyongyang's announcement.

The KCNA report, however, did not say whether Pyongyang plans to give up its existing nuclear weapons. Washington and Seoul have been seeking a complete denuclearization of North Korea.

(North Korea test-fires the Hwasong-15 ICBM in November 2017)
[Photo courtesy of Korea Media]

North Korea's ruling party pledged to abandon its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in country's northeast. It has carried out all six of its nuclear tests there, beginning in 2006, including the most powerful one in September last year.

"We will discontinue nuclear test and intercontinental ballistic rocket test-fire from April 21," the party said in a resolution.

"The mission of the northern nuclear test ground has thus come to an end," Kim, chairman of the ruling party, said at the plenary meeting, according to the KCNA.

"No nuclear test and intermediate-range and inter-continental ballistic rocket test-fire are necessary for the DPRK now, given that the work for mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets was finished," the news agency quoted Kim as saying.

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.


The following is the gist of a resolution adopted at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the North Korea's ruling Worker's Party on Friday.

North Korea will:

-- shut down Punggye-ri nuclear test site in country's northeast.

-- suspend nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

-- join international efforts for disarmament.

-- never use nuclear weapons if there is no nuclear threat to the country.

-- concentrate on building a powerful socialist economy.

(Kim Jong Un inspects what is believed to be a hydrogen bomb)
[Photo released in September 2017][KCNA/Kyodo]

While the party did not mention denuclearization at the Central Committee meeting, it said North Korea would never use nuclear weapons if there was no nuclear threat to the country.

"The discontinuance of the nuclear test is an important process for the worldwide disarmament, and the DPRK will join the international desire and efforts for the total halt to the nuclear test," the party said.

Trump quickly responded to North Korea's announcement by tweeting, "This is very good news for North Korea and the World - big progress! Look forward to our Summit."

Moon also said in a statement, "We appreciate (North Korea's decision) as meaningful progress toward denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, which the world wishes for."

North Korea, meanwhile, made a commitment to putting emphasis on economic improvement, with Kim declaring the victory of the country's policy of "simultaneous development" of nuclear weapons and the economy.

"The historic tasks listed by the strategic line of simultaneously developing the two fronts were successfully carried out," Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA.

The party said it "will concentrate all efforts on building a powerful socialist economy and markedly improving the standard of people's living through the mobilization of all human and material resources of the country."

(Trump and Moon plan to hold talks with Kim Jong Un)

Kim said at the plenary session held in March 2013 that North Korea would develop its nuclear arsenal "simultaneously" with efforts to boost the nation's economy.

The Political Bureau of the party's Central Committee convened the plenary meeting "to discuss and decide the policy issues of new stage in line with the demand of the important historic period of the developing Korean revolution," the news agency reported Thursday.

The meeting was last held in October 2017.

Following the North's third intercontinental ballistic missile test in November last year, when a Hwasong-15 was fired, Kim said his country had "finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force."

In his New Year's address on Jan. 1, Kim extended an olive branch, saying he would prepare for his country's participation in the Feb. 9-25 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics hosted by South Korea. North Korea has since intensified diplomatic efforts.

In early March, Kim met with Moon's envoys in Pyongyang. Later in the month, he also held a surprise summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing during his first foreign trip since becoming North Korea's leader following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011.

Kim is expected to hold talks with Moon on Friday and with Trump, possibly by early June, in the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit.

North Korea's announcement came after Trump said Wednesday that Secretary of State-designate Mike Pompeo met with Kim in Pyongyang earlier this month.


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