DPRK offers to shut nuclear test site in May

Trump expresses optimism about securing a deal in summit with Kim

Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, has said his country will openly close its main nuclear test site in May, the Blue House of the Republic of Korea said on Sunday.

Yoon Young-chan, senior press secretary for ROK President Moon Jae-in, said that during the Friday summit, Kim told Moon that he will shutdown the nuclear test site, which will be transparently made open to the international society.

Kim said he will invite experts and reporters of the ROK and the United States to the DPRK for the transparent implementation. Pyongyang conducted all of its six nuclear detonations in the Punggye-ri test site in northeast of the DPRK.

According to the Blue House, Kim also said Pyongyang was ready to hold dialogue with Japan at any time, adding that Moon had a telephone conversation for 45 minutes on Sunday morning with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to explain and share the result of the Friday meeting.

Moon and Kim held the third inter-Korean summit in the ROK side of the border village of Panmunjom. Kim became the first DPRK leader to step onto the ROK soil since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

At the summit, they confirmed a common goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and agreed to have multilateral talks, including China and the US, to declare an end to the Korean War and change the current armistice agreement into a peace treaty by the end of this year.

Kim told Moon that the two tunnels in the nuclear test site are bigger than the existing ones and in a good shape, rebutting the contention by some media that the DPRK would close the already collapsed nuclear test site.

Moon welcomed Kim's decision to shut down the site, agreeing to discuss when to invite experts and foreign reporters to the DPRK after Pyongyang completes preparations for it.

Kim told Moon that Washington will realize after holding talks with Pyongyang that the DPRK is not a country to use its nuclear weapons toward the ROK, the Pacific Ocean or the US.

A summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump is forecast to be held in May or early June.

Trump said the meeting would take place "in the next three or four weeks", as he touted his ability to achieve a nuclear deal with the DPRK at a campaign-style rally in Michigan to cheers and chants of "Nobel! Nobel!".

Trump had lauded his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping's efforts on the Korean Peninsula issue, calling them a "great help".

In a tweet, Trump said: "Please do not forget the great help that my good friend, President Xi of China, has given to the United States, particularly at the Border of North Korea (the DPRK). Without him it would have been a much longer, tougher, process!"

On Friday, Kim also told Moon that there will be no repetition of war on the peninsula, strongly affirming that there will never be any use of force.

Meanwhile, Kim has agreed with Moon to unify different standard times between Seoul and Pyongyang, which Pyongyang has a standard time 30 minutes later than Seoul.

Xinhua, AP, AFP, Reuters and Zhao Huanxin in Washington contributed to this story.