North Korea to Allow Outside Inspectors to Visit Missile Test Site Moon Jae-in says Koreas to make joint bid to host 2032 Summer Olympics By Jonathan Cheng and Dasl Yoon
https://www.wsj.com/articles/koreas-talks-begin-with-goodwill-if-no-quick-results-1537270274?cx_testId=0&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s
SEOUL—North Korea agreed to allow outside inspectors to visit its missile test site and said it would be open to decommissioning its nuclear-enrichment facility, a bold gambit by Kim Jong Un that is aimed at breaking an impasse in negotiations with the U.S. and keeping engagement with Seoul on track.
On Wednesday, the second of three days of talks in Pyongyang, Mr. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in emerged from an hourlong private meeting to sign a document and hold a joint news conference where they each reaffirmed their goal of ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.
Under the agreement, outside inspectors and experts will be allowed to witness the dismantling of North Korea’s Sohae satellite launching facility, located in the country’s northwest. In recent months, commercial satellite imagery has showed North Korea taking apparent steps to break down the site.
The two Koreas also said that the North would permanently decommission its Yongbyon nuclear-enrichment facility—provided the U.S. took “corresponding steps” to fulfill the terms of the agreement signed by the U.S. and North Korea in June. The two leaders didn’t mention the involvement of any international inspectors at Yongbyon.
The announcements offer fresh hope of a breakthrough between Mr. Kim and President Trump, who has floated the idea of a second U.S.-North Korean meeting following their Singapore summit three months ago.
Mr. Trump, in a pair of tweets written just after midnight in Washington, signaled optimism in the diplomatic process. “Very exciting!” he wrote.
Stalled talks between the U.S. and North Korea had loomed over this week’s Pyongyang summit. The U.S. has insisted that the North make concrete steps toward dismantling its nuclear and missile program as a precondition for further diplomacy, while Pyongyang says the U.S. has dragged its feet on signing a treaty to end the Korean War. The Korean Peninsula has remained technically in a state of war for more than six decades after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in armistice without a formal peace treaty.
Wednesday’s agreement will also create a joint military commission aimed at reducing tensions between the two sides. CONTINUE AT SITE
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