North Korea rips 'denuclearization' narrative from Trump with flashy, probably meaningless test site destruction

Associated Press

A file photo shows a different North Korean nuclear facility, in Yongbyon, being destroyed in 2008.

• North Korea will destroy a nuclear test site in front of a handful of foreign journalists on Tuesday.
• North Korea is making a big story out of destroying a test site that doesn't actually mean that much.
• This helps create a narrative of denuclearization, while refusing to give up its actual nukes.
• It follows Pyongyang taking a much more aggressive line with South Korea and the US.
• Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are meeting to discuss North Korea on Tuesday.

North Korea will destroy a nuclear test site in front of a handful of foreign journalists on Tuesday - a move which lets it shape a narrative of cooperating with the US without actually removing its nuclear capabilities.

Foreign journalists from the US, China, and Russia arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to report on the destruction of an underground site that Pyongyang has repeatedly rocked with nuclear detonation tests.

At the same time, President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are meeting behind the scenes to discuss what to make of Kim Jong Un's new, aggressive tone.

The destruction of the test site, in Wonsan, represents denuclearization North Korea's way, meaning it isn't permanent, verifiable, irreversible, or complete.

North Korea intends to make a big show of dismantling its test site by collapsing access tunnels, but it can always build more tunnels, dig the tunnels back out again, or test somewhere else.

Additionally, if North Korea has completed its nuclear program, which it says it has, it no longer needs an active test site anyway. The US has maintained nuclear weapons without nuclear testing for decades.

The US has demanded that North Korea denuclearize in more concrete ways, like by sending missiles and nuclear devices overseas for irreversible dismantlement, but that doesn't seem to have gone down well with Pyongyang.

Additionally, North Korea has been lashing out at the US, and also South Korea, whose journalists were banned from covering the event.

Trump and Moon try to save the summit

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House in 2017.

While the world watches North Korea's staged show of denuclearization, Trump and Moon will meet at the White House to discuss the upcoming summit with Kim Jong Un, and North Korea's recent harsh words.

Until mid-May, North Korea had made generous promises to denuclearize, asking nothing in return. Recently, media from Pyongyang changed their stance, and began again saying how vital its nuclear weapons are.

This change in attitude from Pyongyang prompted Moon to meet with Trump for their talk on Tuesday.

Since North Korea's return to hostile talk, Trump has reportedly considered dropping out of the summit, and offered back some strong words of his own, implying the US could "decimate" North Korea if no deal is reached.

But with North Korea improving its ties with China after the Trump-Kim summit's announcement, it's possible that Kim could now back out of the summit and attempt to paint Trump as the belligerent one.

North Korea is outwardly embracing denuclearization with a showy destruction of a probably meaningless nuclear site, while directly communicating to South Korea and the US that it won't disarm.

By doing so, it has ripped the narrative of denuclearization from Trump's hands and turned it towards its own ends.