South Korean president, Moon Jae-in (R) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) are hugging after issuing a joint statement in the Peace House building at the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea on April 27, 2018. Inter-Korean Summit Press Corps | Getty Images

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to close the country's nuclear test site in May in full view of the outside world, Seoul officials said on Sunday, as U.S. President Trump pressed for total denuclearization ahead of his own unprecedented meeting with Kim. On Friday, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula in the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade, but the declaration did not include concrete steps to reach that goal. North Korea's state media had said before the summit that Pyongyang would immediately suspend nuclear and missile tests, scrap its nuclear test site and instead pursue economic growth and peace. Kim told Moon that he would soon invite experts and journalists from the United States and South Korea to "transparently open to the international community" the dismantling of the facilities, the Blue House said. "Kim said if the United States holds dialogue with the North, they would realize that he's not the kind of person who would fire a nuclear missile toward the South, over the Pacific or targeting the United States," Moon's press secretary Yoon Young-chan told a news briefing. "If the United States meets often and builds trust with us and promises an end of war and non-aggression, why would we lead a difficult life?" Yoon reported Kim as saying. Kim said there were two additional, larger tunnels that remain "alive and well" at the Punggye-ri test site beyond the existing one, which experts have said had collapsed after repeated explosions, rendering much of the site useless. Kim's promise shows his willingness to "preemptively and actively" respond to inspection efforts to be made as part of the denuclearization process, Yoon said. To facilitate future cross-border cooperation, Kim pledged to scrap the unique time zone Pyongyang created in 2015. He said the North would move its clocks forward 30 minutes to be in sync with the South, nine hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. Kim also reaffirmed that he would not use military force against the South and raised the need for an institutional mechanism to prevent unintended escalations, Yoon said.

Next steps

Late Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump told Moon in a phone call that he was pleased the leaders of the two Koreas reaffirmed the goal of complete denuclearization during their summit, Seoul officials said on Sunday. Moon and Trump agreed on the need for an early summit between Trump and Kim, and explored two to three potential locations, the Blue House said. A senior U.S. official has said Singapore is being considered as a possible venue for the Trump-Kim summit. "Trump said it was good news for not only the two Koreas but the whole world that they affirmed the goal of realizing a nuclear-free Korean peninsula through a complete denuclearization," South Korea's presidential Blue House said. "Trump was looking forward to talks with Kim and there would be a very good result." Trump, who called the 75-minute chat "a long and very good talk" on Twitter, said his summit with Kim would take place sometime in the next three to four weeks. "It's going be a very important meeting, the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," he said at a campaign rally in Washington, Michigan, on Saturday. The White House said Trump and Moon during the call "emphasized that a peaceful and prosperous future for North Korea is contingent upon its complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization." Trump had also informed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he would urge North Korea to promptly resolve its abductions of Japanese citizens, the White House said. Most of the specific commitments outlined in the official declaration signed by Kim and Moon focused on inter-Korean relations and did not clear up the question of whether Pyongyang is willing to give up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. North Korea's state media on Saturday released the joint statement as part of a multi-page spread with more than 60 photos from the visit, lauding Friday's summit as a turning point for the peninsula. It made rare mentions of the denuclearization discussion, but did not go into detail, instead highlighting the broad themes of peace, prosperity, and Korean unity.

'Amicable atmosphere'