After Ripping 'Dummy' Mike Pence for Continued Threats, North Korea Shows Commitment to Talks by Destroying Nuclear Site

Just hours after a senior North Korean official lashed out at U.S. Vice President Mike Pence for his “stupid and ignorant” suggestion that the White House may pursue the so-called “Libya model” of denuclearization on the Korean peninsula, Pyongyang reportedly destroyed its primary nuclear test site in front of foreign journalists, a gesture of goodwill that shows the Trump administration’s continued threats remain the primary obstacle to genuine diplomatic progress.

“If the U.S. continues with their evil acts, I will ask for the summit to be reconsidered.”
—Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s vice-minister of foreign affairs

“The dismantling of the nuclear test ground conducted with high level transparency has clearly attested once against to the proactive and peace-loving efforts of the DPRK government being made for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and over the world,” Pyongyang said in a statement after the test site was demolished.

“The discontinuance of the nuclear test is an important process moving towards global nuclear disarmament, and we will continue to join hands with the world’s peace-loving people in building a nuclear-free peaceful world,” the statement concluded.

Destruction of the test site—witnessed by journalists from the U.S., Russia, China, and other nations—came shortly after Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s vice-minister of foreign affairs, ridiculed Pence as a “political dummy” in a statement on Thursday and warned that “if the U.S. continues with their evil acts, I will ask for the summit to be reconsidered.”