North Korea releases details of plans to dismantle nuclear test site

North Korea has scheduled thedismantlement of its nuclear test site for some time between May23 and 25 depending on weather conditions in order to uphold itsprevious pledge to discontinue nuclear tests, state mediareported on Saturday.

The country's central news agency said the dismantlement ofthe nuclear test ground would involve collapsing all of itstunnels with explosions, blocking its entrances and removing allobservation facilities, research buildings and security posts.

"The Nuclear Weapon Institute and other concernedinstitutions are taking technical measures for dismantling thenorthern nuclear test ground of the DPRK in order to ensuretransparency of discontinuance of the nuclear test," said theannouncement. DPRK is an acronym for North Korea's officialname, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he welcomed the "gracious gesture."

The announcement comes after Trumpsaid he would hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-unin Singapore on June 12. It will be the first meeting everbetween a sitting U.S. president and the leader of North Korea.

It follows a flurry of international engagement with NorthKorea as the two Koreas held their own summit in late April andofficials plan to hold high-level meetings in coming weeks.

Promise of U.S. aid

"The atmospherics [heading into the summit] are great, so at the moment there is a lot of hope ... but things could unravel in a very bad way. We just have to wait to see how this unfolds," said David Welch of the Waterloo, Ont.-based Balsillie School of International Affairs.

"We still haven't seen much yet about what the quid pro quo will be if North Korea agrees to fully denuclearize," Welch told CBC News.

"And [U.S. Secretary of State]Mike Pompeo's statement ... is an early indication of what might be part of the package the United States would put together, massive economic aid to try to bring North Korea up to South Korean infrastructure standards, which would frankly be a spectacularly expensive proposition," Welch said.

Pompeo said on Friday that NorthKorea can look forward to "a future brimming with peace andprosperity" if it agrees to quickly give up its nuclear weapons.

"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," he said.

Foreign journalists to be invited

Officials in Seoul had said in April that North Koreaplanned to invite experts and journalists from the United Statesand South Korea for the shutdown of its test site.

North Korea said journalists from other countries, includingthe United States and South Korea, will be invited to cover theevent, to "show in a transparent manner the dismantlement of thenorthern nuclear test ground to be carried out."

In order to accommodate the travelling journalists, NorthKorea said various measures would be taken including "openingterritorial air space."

All international journalists will be provided with acharter flight into Wonsan, a port city in eastern North Korea,from Beijing, KCNA said. There, reporters will board a chartertrain to the nuclear test ground in an "uninhabited deepmountain area."

North Korea's six known nuclear tests have taken place inPunggye-ri, a location in the northeastern part of North Koreawhere a system of tunnels have been dug under Mount Mantap.

Experts have said the pledge to dismantle the test site is abig step forward but verifying it will be difficult.