North Korea decides to suspend nuclear, missile tests, shut down atomic test site

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SEOUL. KAZINFORM - North Korea said Saturday that it has decided to suspend nuclear and missile tests and shut down its atomic test site, in a surprise announcement that could give momentum to its upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States, Yonhap reports. 

The announcement came amid a diplomatic push to denuclearize North Korea, the main agenda for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's planned meeting with his counterparts from the South and the U.S.

"We will discontinue nuclear test and inter-continental ballistic rocket test-fire from April 21," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing the outcome of a key meeting of the ruling party held Friday.

"The northern nuclear test ground of the DPRK will be dismantled to transparently guarantee the discontinuance of the nuclear test," it said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea has conducted all of its six nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri test site in the northeastern province since 2006. The North's latest and most powerful nuclear test was conducted in September last year.

The report also said that North Korea will neither use nuclear weapons nor transfer nukes or nuclear technology under any circumstances, unless there are nuclear threats or provocation against it.

The decision was made at the plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which drew keen attention over whether the North would possibly unveil a shift in stance toward its nuclear programs.

The session was held before Kim sits down with President Moon Jae-in next Friday at the border truce village of Panmunjom. That meeting will be followed by a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump probably in May or early June. North Korea's denuclearization will top the agenda for those meetings.

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