Roundup: S.Korea lauds DPRK's decision to shut down nuke test site

SEOUL, April 23 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in viewed the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) decision to shut down its main nuclear test facility as a peace gesture ahead of the inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. summits.

"North Korea (the DPRK) declared the discontinuance of nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile test-launches. As a practical measure, it declared the shutdown its Punggye-ri nuclear test site," Moon said at a meeting with his senior secretaries, according to the presidential Blue House.

Moon saw the DPRK's decision as a "sincere measure" ahead of the inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. summits.

Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un will meet on Friday at the border village of Panmunjom. It is expected to be followed in May or early June by a meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim said at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea last week that his country will suspend nuclear and missile tests, and close the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where all of Pyongyang's six nuclear detonations were conducted.

China, the United States, Russia and Japan have all expressed appreciation and support to the DPRK's decision, Moon said.

Moon said the decision raised the possibility of making the inter-Korean and DPRK-U.S. summits a success.

In response to Pyongyang's peace gesture, the South Korean military has stopped blaring anti-DPRK broadcast via loudspeakers along the military demarcation line (MDL) from 12:00 a.m. local time Monday (1500 GMT Sunday).

Seoul's defense ministry said in a statement that the action was taken to defuse inter-Korean military tensions along the border and create a peaceful atmosphere ahead of the upcoming summit.

The ministry anticipated the stoppage to be an opportunity for stopping smear and propaganda campaigns against each other and bearing fruits of peace.

The anti-DPRK broadcast had been blared from loudspeakers installed near Panmunjom, called Joint Security Area in which Moon and Kim is set to hold a historic summit meeting.

South Korea resumed the psychological warfare of broadcasts in January 2016 in response to Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test, before stopping it early Monday.

The joint annual springtime South Korea-U.S. war games, which kicked off on April 1, are highly likely to be halted on the summit day, according to Yonhap news agency report.

The two-week-long Key Resolve command post exercise started early Monday as scheduled, but the first part of it will likely be suspended on Friday, according to the report.

Combined forces of South Korea and the United States conduct the annual war games from February or early March, but this year's drills were delayed over the South Korea-hosted Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games in February and March, respectively.

The DPRK sent hundreds of athletes, art performers and cheerleaders as well as political delegations to the winter games in South Korea's PyeongChang county, leading to high-level talks between the two Koreas in about two years and an agreement to the third inter-Korean summit. Enditem