Why Closing Kim’s Test Site Won’t Hinder His Nuclear Plans
North Korea Confirms It Destroyed Nuclear Test Site
A decade ago, the last time North Korea took talks with the U.S., then-leader Kim Jong Il blew up a cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear plant as part of a deal to limit its weapons program. Within months, he was reassembling the reactor -- a key source of weapons-grade plutonium. That’s one reason why arms-control experts are watching with caution as his son, Kim Jong Un, now moves to publicly dismantle the remote subterranean testing site used by the regime to detonate six nuclear bombs.
Days before his historic summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month, Kim announced plans to close his Punggye-ri testing ground in the country’s mountainous northeast. Journalists from China, Russia, the U.K., the U.S. and South Korea have been invited to observe the collapse and closing of test tunnels and other facilities between May 23 and May 25. U.S. President Donald Trump praised the move as a “very smart and gracious gesture” ahead of his own planned meeting with Kim next month in Singapore.