N. Korea’s Kim says to visit Seoul, shut missile site

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SEOUL, Sept 19, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will soon make
a historic visit to Seoul, he said Wednesday, and has agreed to close a
missile testing site in front of international inspectors, as a rare inter-
Korean summit unfolded in Pyongyang.

However, progress on the key issue of dismantling the North’s nuclear
arsenal was limited, even though the South’s President Moon Jae-in had hoped
to bring fresh momentum to stalled talks between his hosts and the United
States.

Kim said he would travel to Seoul “in the near future”, adding that the
agreement he signed with Moon “carries the people’s fresh hope and the
people’s strong, flaming desire for reunification”.

The visit would be the first by a Northern leader to Seoul since the end of
the 1950-53 Korean War, when hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than
a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula technically in a state of war.

Talks in Pyongyang built on a growing rapprochement, with the two leaders
agreeing Wednesday to hold family reunions on a regular basis, work towards
joining up road and rail links, and mount a combined bid for the 2032
Olympics.

Moon said Kim’s visit to Seoul could happen this year and would be a
“turning point in South-North relations”.

The North had agreed to “permanently close” a missile engine testing site
and launch facility in Tongchang-ri “in the presence of experts from relevant
nations”, he added.

At Kim’s historic summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in
June — brokered by Moon — he declared his backing for denuclearisation of
the peninsula.

But no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have since sparred
over what that means and how it will be achieved.

Trump welcomed Wednesday’s declaration, tweeting that Kim had “agreed to
allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations” and adding: “Very
exciting!”

But experts were sceptical. – ‘Short of expectations’ –

The North — whose ballistic missile programme is banned under UN Security
Council resolutions — has carried out several long-range rocket launches
from the site, also known as Sohae, but has also used many other locations,
including Pyongyang airport.

Satellite pictures in August suggested workers were already dismantling an
engine test stand at Sohae.

“Kim is playing this brilliantly: verify that I dismantle a single site
that I no longer need anyway while I mass produce the missiles the site
helped me develop,” said Vipin Narang of MIT.

Moon also said the North could close its Yongbyon nuclear facility if
Washington takes “corresponding measures” — a significant caveat.

Arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis said the consensus view was that the
uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon “was built for (the) express purpose
of being sacrificed”.

After the high symbolism of Moon and Kim’s first meeting in April in the
Demilitarized Zone, and the Singapore summit, progress has largely stalled.

Washington is pressing for the North’s “final, fully verified
denuclearisation”, while Pyongyang wants a formal declaration that the 1950-
53 Korean War is over and has condemned “gangster-like” demands for it to
give up its weapons unilaterally.

Ahead of the Pyongyang summit there had been speculation Moon could secure
a promise from Kim of a list of the North’s nuclear assets, but no such
document was mentioned.

“On the denuclearisation issue, the agreement fell short of expectations,”
Korea University political science professor Yoo Ho-yeol told AFP.

“Had the North promised to hand over information on its nuclear arsenal,
for example, it would have looked much more encouraging.” – Mass applause –

But the two Koreas have been pressing ahead with their own rapprochement,
with Kim looking to secure economic cooperation from the far wealthier South,
and Moon looking to reduce the risk of a US-North Korean conflict that would
devastate his country.

The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the North’s ruling party,
has given the summit blanket coverage, with dozens of photos of the two
leaders embracing on Moon’s arrival Tuesday, parading together through the
streets of the capital, enjoying a concert, and toasting at a banquet.

On Wednesday evening, Moon’s party will dine at a new fish restaurant in
Pyongyang opposite Mansu hill, where giant statues of Kim’s predecessors —
his grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il — look out over the city.

It was chosen after Moon expressed interest in dining at a local restaurant
with ordinary citizens. However, a retail shop there sells North Korean
caviar at $50 for a 50-gramme jar — a luxury far beyond the reach of most
North Koreans.

Afterwards, Moon will attend a performance of the “Mass Games” — North
Korea’s spectacular propaganda display featuring tens of thousands of
performers against an ever-changing backdrop, made up of 17,490 children
turning the coloured pages of books in sequence to send images rippling
across one side of the May Day stadium.

The premiere of the latest version of the show, called “The Glorious
Country”, earlier this month featured video footage of Moon and Kim together
at their first summit in Panmunjom — prompting the unusual sight of tens of
thousands of North Koreans applauding images of the South’s president.