SEOUL: Invited foreign journalists gathered in North Korea on Wednesday to witness the slated destruction of the reclusive regime’s nuclear test site, a high profile gesture on the road to a summit with the US that Donald Trump now says might not happen. North Korea is expected to dismantle its Punggye-ri nuclear test site over the next few days in a move toward denuclearization ahead of an unprecedented summit between President Trump and the North's leader, Kim Jong Un. The North’s decision to close the Punggye-ri nuclear test site has generally been seen as a welcome gesture by Mr Kim to set a positive tone ahead of the summit. This May 23 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the Punggye-ri test site in North Korea (DigitalGlobe via AP)

Even so, it is not an irreversible move and would need to be followed by many more significant measures to meet Mr Trump’s demands for real denuclearisation. Some members of Congress lauded Trump saying he made the right decision to call off the summit if North Korea did not intend on getting rid of its nuclear weapons, while others urged the administration to keep working to end nuclear threats from North Korea. Joel Wit, director of 38 North and a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, said dismantling the site is not a meaningless gesture, as there are two areas of the installation that have never been used for tests and still contain tunnels. In Seoul, an embarrassed President Moon Jae-in, who had met with Trump in Washington less than 24 hours earlier, hurriedly convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet to attempt to decipher the meaning of Trump's decision, and where South Korea, which has been at the forefront of talks with North Korea, goes next.
North Korea sets off a series of explosions to demolish the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site to build confidence before the scheduled summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.