Thread: North Korea Says it Will Blow Up Nuclear Test Site Before Meeting With Trump

North Korea Says it Will Blow Up Nuclear Test Site Before Meeting With Trump

By Daniel Politi
May 12, 20182:47 PM

North Korea issued a dramatic gesture on Saturday ahead of the highly anticipated meeting between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, saying it will dismantle its nuclear testing site within the next two weeks. In a statement published by state media, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the country would take action to make sure “all tunnels of the test ground collapse by explosion” sometime between May 23 and May 25. It will also block all entrances to the site that the country has used for all six of its nuclear tests and remove observation facilities and other structures around the area. “In parallel with dismantlement of the nuclear test ground, guards and researchers will be withdrawn and the surrounding area of the test ground be completely closed,” noted the statement.

North Korea said it would invite journalists from the United States, South Korea, China, Russia, and Britain to witness the dismantling of the test site. The statement even got into details of how the journalists would get there, saying there would be a charter flight from China and a train ride to the test site.

Pyongyang had already pledged to get rid of its nuclear test site but the announcement Saturday came shortly after Trump announced he would be meeting with the North Korean leader on June 12 in Singapore. It also came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that if North Korea “takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends.” If Pyongyang makes the right moves “there is a future brimming with peace and prosperity for the North Korean people,” he added.

Despite the talk coming from Washington, North Korea has never pledged to get rid of its nuclear weapons unilaterally. And while South Korean officials said Pyongyang also planned to invite experts to witness the shutdown of the Punggye-ri site, there was no mention of that in Saturday’s statement.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...ith-trump.html

It also came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that if North Korea “takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends.” If Pyongyang makes the right moves “there is a future brimming with peace and prosperity for the North Korean people,” he added.

This is a very important statement, because it means that the US will pursue trade agreements with North Korea to help them economically as well as provide military security. That's how it's been done in South Korea. And in past statements by Kim, he has said that the US providing security was a crucial issue for them. I think North Korea wants to flip and become an ally of the United States instead of China or Russia and wouldn't need to pay for or maintain big armies and weapons to defend themselves against US, China, Russia, Japan or even South Korea.

If this proves to be the case, this will be one of the most remarkable peace treaties since WWII.

I wonder how many North Koreans speak English? Most younger North Koreans know at least some English, it's taught as an international necessary language. Chinese is also popular but only because of the increased trade and economic growth in China that caused the North Koreans to think Chinese might become important one day to them.

It would be quite a nice surprise for Americans to find out that all these years North Korea has been encouraging its people to learn our language.

To North Korea, the best way to impress an American second to getting rid of all your nuclear war dope is knowing our language. Get the books out and start brushing up on English!! Good times lay ahead .... lets make the most of it.