President Donald Trump on Saturday called North Korea's announcement that it would dismantle its nuclear test site later this month "a very smart and gracious gesture" ahead of his summit with dictator Kim Jong Un.
"Thank you," Trump said on Twitter:
The official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that the Punggye-ri nuclear test ground would be broken down between May 23 and 25, depending on weather conditions, as in its pledge to denuclearize ahead of Kim's meeting with Trump in Singapore on June 12.
The dismantling would include collapsing all of the site's tunnels with explosions, blocking its entrances, and removing all observation facilities, research buildings and security posts.
"The Nuclear Weapon Institute and other concerned institutions are taking technical measures for dismantling the northern nuclear test ground ... in order to ensure transparency of discontinuance of the nuclear test," KCNA said in its announcement.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that North Korea could look forward to "a future brimming with peace and prosperity" if it agreed to quickly give up its nuclear weapons.
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