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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in embrace each other after signing on a joint statement at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone. AP/PA Images

North Korea promises to shut nuclear test site next month

Kim Jong Un said he “would soon invite experts of South Korea and the US as well as journalists”.

NORTH KOREA HAS promised to close its atomic test site next month and invite US weapons experts to the country.

The reported pledge from the North’s leader Kim Jong Un follows weeks of whirlwind diplomacy that saw Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agree to pursue the complete denuclearisation of the peninsula during a historic summit on Friday.

“Kim said, during the summit with President Moon, that he would carry out the closing of the nuclear test site in May,” Seoul’s presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said.

Kim said he “would soon invite experts of South Korea and the US as well as journalists to disclose the process to the international community with transparency”, Yoon added.

Tension has been high on the flashpoint peninsula since last year when the North carried its sixth — and most powerful — atomic test and test-fired missiles capable of reaching the US mainland.

“Kim said ‘the US feels repelled by us, but once we talk, they will realise that I am not a person who will fire a nuclear weapon to the South or the US or target the US,” according to Yoon.

“If we meet often (with the US), build trust, end the war and eventually are promised no invasion, why would we live with the nuclear weapons?’”

Kim also slammed speculation during his meeting with Moon that the Punggye-ri test site was already unusable after an underground tunnel there reportedly collapsed.

“As they will see once they visit, there are two more tunnels (in the test site) that are even bigger… and they are in good condition,” he was quoted as saying.

The remarks are likely to be seen as a sweetener ahead of Trump’s own planned summit with Kim, which the US president said would take place “in the next three or four weeks”.

Trump touted his ability to achieve a nuclear deal with the regime at a campaign-style rally in Michigan to cheers and chants of “Nobel! Nobel!”.

The US leader has been eager to play up his role in achieving a breakthrough with Pyongyang through his “maximum pressure” campaign involving tough rhetoric, strengthened global sanctions and diplomatic efforts to further isolate the regime.

“Months ago, do you remember what they were saying? ‘He’s going to get us into nuclear war, they said,’” Trump told supporters in Washington Township, north of Detroit.

“No, strength is going to keep us out of nuclear war, not going to get us in!” he added.

But Trump also sounded a note of caution, saying he was prepared to walk away if US demands for North Korea to relinquish its atomic arsenal in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way were not met.

His remarks came as his new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told ABC News he had a “good conversation” with Kim during his secret visit to Pyongyang over Easter weekend, adding that Kim was “prepared to… lay out a map that would help us achieve” denuclearisation.

‘Things are going well’

Trump held phone calls yesterday with both Moon and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, declaring “things are going very well”, as CBS News reported that Mongolia and Singapore are the final two locations under consideration for his meeting with Kim.

The North once invited foreign observers and journalists to its main Yongbyon atomic complex in 2008 when it destroyed an aged cooling tower — with the dramatic explosion televised globally within hours.

That event did not slow the North’s nuclear drive, but the situation looks more upbeat this time, Hong Min, analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.

“There’s a vast difference between blowing up a cooling tower and dismantling your only and, if what Kim said was right, functioning nuclear test site,” he said, adding Kim was “giving away in advance one of the major chips he could have saved for the actual meeting with Trump”.

“Given this is only a conciliatory move in the build-up to the summit, I think the meeting is likely to produce something more concrete,” he said.

Pyongyang has demanded as-yet-unspecified security guarantees to discuss its arsenal, but Kim could use the meeting to agree on “the range of nuclear weapons and facilities to be dismantled and specific time frame to do so”, said Hong.

New era? 

Yesterday the North’s state media hailed the inter-Korea summit as a “historic meeting”, adding that Kim and Moon “confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearisation, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.”

But the phrase is a diplomatic euphemism open to interpretation on both sides.

Pyongyang has long wanted to see an end to the US military presence and nuclear umbrella over the South, but it invaded its neighbour in 1950 and is the only one of the two Koreas to possess nuclear weapons.

When Kim stepped over the military demarcation line that divides the peninsula he became the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the Korean War hostilities ceased in 1953 with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

In a joint statement, the two Korean leaders also pledged to seek a peace treaty this year to formally declare the Korean War over.

- © AFP 2018.

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    Mute James Fox
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 6:37 AM

    Nailed to a cross is all I’m expecting from the budget

    266
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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 6:41 AM

    @James Fox: ah get down off the cross will ya, we need the wood.

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    Mute Tracey Keating Coughlan
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 10:08 AM

    @James Fox: very true!!.. us the regular working people have been nailed to that cross a long time now ….. think we will get more nails though!

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    Mute JK
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 10:11 AM

    @Michael Burke: Why is that is it to heat the house when the power is cut LOL

    9
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    Mute Ciaran Dunne
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 1:00 PM

    @James Fox: FFG want you to supply your own nails The Green will gladly supply the hammer under a sustainable agreement .

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    Mute James Fox
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 1:41 PM

    @Ciaran Dunne: yes it can’t be a wooden handle

    6
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    Mute Gerrard
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 8:19 AM

    The government put a set percentage of tax on diesel/petrol so with the fuel rising so much in the last year they are getting a lot extra but they still want to raise carbon tax .. absolute day light robbery

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    Mute John O Reilly
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 9:33 AM

    @Gerrard: and we don’t have enough electricity for electric cars

    89
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    Mute LaoisWeather
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 11:51 AM

    @Gerrard: And that carbon tax along with the excise duty is also subject to VAT. Win-win-win for the Govt.

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    Mute Tomo
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 5:28 PM

    @John O Reilly: And no public transport

    8
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    Mute Jj
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 9:35 AM

    You get an Xmas bonus on the dole? In Spain, you get a kick up the ar se, you get nothing if you haven’t paid into to it for a year minimum. You realise how generous it is in Ireland, for low income workers/unemployed when you look at how social welfare is around the EU.

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    Mute Heisen berg1
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 9:45 AM

    @Jj: IV paid taxes all my life and I’m entitled to nothing, yet someone I no never worked for 30 years gets free money every week, free doctors, dental, eye test, etc

    149
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    Mute The Bolt
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 11:32 AM

    @Heisen berg1: Why not go on the dole then? I’ve worked all my life and never would I feel it’s better being on the dole than having to get up for work every morning. We had near full employment at one stage and it didn’t improve my salary by much, hard work did. So people being on the dole isn’t going to decrease my salary a whole lot either. The onus is on me to improve my lifestyle, not the effects of someone being on the dole or not.

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    Mute Mirabelle Stonegate
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 7:20 PM

    @Jj: it’s not that great. I pay half my dole in rent to my parents. Plus any foods I want that are extra to the bill… so my milk, my bread, etc. And they’re not cheap. I paid €4 yesterday for 2 litres of milk, for example.

    Then there’s my phone. And a contribution to the household internet. And I pay for our Netflix sub, which no one uses, but I’m not allowed to cancel “just in case” and the disney+ sub, which I’m currently using, admittedly. And I’ve recently had to shell out a couple of hundred on clothes in case I get interviews for jobs I’m applying to (which is a joke… 99% of the places I apply to don’t look at my applications. In saying that, when my application IS looked at, I get an interview. But that happens about once in every couple of hundred CVs sent out). OH, and I’m trying to save towards moving out, should I ever manage to get a job. And there are prescriptions. And GP visits that need to be paid for on occasion. And the flu jab will be costing about €30 this year.. that ain’t free..

    So… lets see. I get €812 per month. €400 is rent. €25 is phone. €50 is internet ~€30 on subscriptions. about €50 per month gets spent on food. In September I had to buy new shoes, which were €100. And give contribute €200 towards my parents trip to England, and drop €50 on presents for people I hardly know, that they are visiting.. And another €150 on clothes. And none of these were choices. These were payments my parents required me to make, in order to be able to live here for the months of September/October. OH! And another €90 to get my hair done.. which was the cheapest price I could find for what they wanted me to have done – wash cut and colour (cover the greys).

    I’ve already been told that my Christmas bonus will be going towards paying for Christmas dinner and stuff like that.

    Oh… and both my parents are employed. They’re not poor. They also get on my case constantly for not saving €400 every single month, and for sometimes having to dip into my savings because of the costs I have to pay for. And yes, work it out.. by the time I’ve paid for my food and phone, there’s no way I can save €400 per month.. so they are constantly on my case for not saving enough. Claiming I’m bad with money, and spend too much.

    That €150 I spent on clothes? My mother picked them out. Wouldn’t let me look for anything cheaper. Then afterwards, she gave me grief for wasting so much money on clothes I’ll likely never use, because I struggle to get interviews.

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    Mute Gary
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 6:57 AM

    We can expect to be leaked every bit of information

    97
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    Mute RogerRamjet
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 8:05 AM

    I’d say the nervousness and worry is palpable among many TD’s in FFG about the rising tide they know is coming in the next election.

    No doubt the arguments are many between them over a giveaway budget to try stop what is coming and the polls are showing.

    83
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    Mute Anto Curran
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 8:56 AM

    @RogerRamjet: will be interesting to see the opposition alternative budgets and costings. I think if their numbers actually add up, never have before, it will give people food for additional thought.

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    Mute keano
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 9:22 AM

    Does the idea of a bonus for frontline workers sit uneasy with anyone else ? They did their job, and no doubt we’re under extreme pressure but is that new for front line workers ? They are either getting paid enough to do their job or they aren’t .

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    Mute Heisen berg1
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 9:39 AM

    Get rid of the carbon tax! Then the cost of fuel gose down, and a knock on effect happens, everything starts to come down in price, heating, food etc etc, or am I been a bit naive?

    83
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    Mute ianglen
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 7:19 AM

    Bye bye pension.

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    Mute Mary Oliver
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 8:14 AM

    @ianglen: €5 euro an insult

    92
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    Mute Stan Papusa
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 8:56 AM

    Strangely enough there’s no mention of this: https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/othersport/arid-40711562.html
    Am I to understand that higher taxes, tolls and congestion charges have nothing to do with the budget?
    If they do, one wonders why this isn’t being flagged.
    Could it be perhaps because it might cause an uproar (as it rightly should) or it will emphasize how unrealistic and impractical the new climate “plan” is?

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    Mute Stan Papusa
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    Oct 3rd 2021, 9:13 AM
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    Mute Sean Callan
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 3:04 PM

    Big Question???? When will our Pensioners get full restoration of 2008 entitlements?
    Please Minister, remedy this scandal now!!..

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    Mute Modern Irish Dad
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 8:06 AM

    I am hedging against the euro and buying into inflation protected etfs. buckle up buckaroos $TIPS

    11
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    Mute Sean
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    Oct 2nd 2021, 11:37 PM

    How about a scheme that can be announced with great fanfare and spin but nobody is really eligible for it for one reason or another and it can be quietly shelved in two years time? We’ve had plenty of them.

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    Mute Úna O Connor Barrett
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    Oct 3rd 2021, 11:17 AM

    Family carers working 24/7 ignored, not entitked to fuel allowance abd means tested. Caring for a disabled person requires ongoing heating.

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    Mute Marin Wyer
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    Oct 3rd 2021, 7:58 PM

    Genuinely wondering why I bother working. Other than living in a nice area there’s no benefit to me. Guaranteed bonuses for those on the dole, help to buy, increase in welfare, fuel allowances and no increase for booze and cigs absolutely nothing relevant for the the already squeezed middle.

    3
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