In a huge step towards the denuclearisation that we’ve all been waiting for, North Korea have announced plans to take apart their nuclear weapons testing site very soon. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made these claims via the North’s state-run news outlet KCNA, just one day after the United Nations’ aviation authority revealed that they had been contacted by North Korea. The nation had pledged not to launch any surprise nuclear tests that could put life at risk or disturb any flights on their usual path. That regime seems to really be turning a corner.
The nation’s leader Kim Jong-un had previously suggested that this would be the case on the 20th of April, when he said that his regime had “completed its mission” by testing their intercontinental ballistic missiles to ensure that their country had the biggest, baddest nuclear weapons in the world, so if it hit the fan and the other nations came knocking with their own nuclear weapons, North Korea would be prepared. However, given the reckless and volatile and devil-may-care sensibilities of Kim, other nations have been scared of what he might do with them and have been trying to get him to shut down his nuclear arms program for years.
The whole situation escalated very quickly when Donald Trump became the President of the United States, since his brash, anti-government, Washington outsider, “We will take care of it” attitude ruffled Kim’s feathers.
The two have exchanged threats and insults, with the North Korean dictator calling the US President a “dotard” and the latter calling the former “short and fat” in return. But then they seemed to patch things over when Kim extended Trump a handwritten invitation to a face-to-face meeting and he accepted. This meeting will be taking place in Singapore in the coming weeks (the 12th of June, to be exact), where full denuclearisation of North Korea is sure to be discussed.
Everyone’s invited to see the site get dismantled
Well, not everyone. But the announcement from North Korea did state that reporters from all over the world, including press from the US and the UK, are allowed to come and witness the nuclear testing site’s tunnels get demolished and its facilities get dismantled. It also went into detail about the “technical measures” that Kim’s regime would be taking to make sure that shutting down the nuclear site would be safe and stop weapons tests from taking place there for good.
Kim also promised “transparency” in proving that they had stopped these tests, as everyone in the United Nations and even North Korea’s close ally China have been begging them to do for a long while now. Still, better late than never. Donald Trump tweeted out his thanks and praise to the North after the announcement came out, saying that the move was “very smart” and a “gracious gesture” from Kim in anticipation of their upcoming summit.
The test site dismantlement will be a ‘ceremony’
According to the North Korean state-run media, the dismantlement of the nuclear weapons testing site will be treated as a “ceremony” and, weather permitting, it’s scheduled for the very early date of the 23rd of May – just over one week away.
The journalists who have been invited to attend will be allowed to broadcast “on-the-spot coverage” of the event in “a transparent manner,” in order to show the world that this is the real deal and it is a real step toward denuclearisation for the regime.
This is quite the turning point for North Korea. They’re allowing foreign journalists in with complete freedom of expression and shutting down a site used for unannounced nuclear tests that they have now promised not to conduct anymore in anticipation of a diplomatic conversation about full denuclearisation between the nation’s leader and the President of the United States. Is this Opposite Day?
