SEOUL: North Korea will destroy its nuclear test site later this month, ahead of a summit with the United States, it said on Saturday, pledging to blow up its tunnels in front of invited foreign media. US President Donald Trump praised the North’s decision to dismantle the Punggye-ri test site in a ceremony scheduled between May 23-25, the latest step in leader Kim Jong Un’s charm offensive. Kim has declared the development of the North’s nuclear force complete and that it had no further need for the site. Reporters from China, Russia, the United States, Britain and South Korea would be allowed to cover the event on site to show it “in a transparent manner”. Limits on foreign journalists were due to space constraints, it said, as the site was in an “uninhabited deep mountain area”.

Source: Manila Times May 13, 2018 04:41 UTC