China welcomes N. Korea’s decision to halt nuclear tests

China Saturday said it welcomed North Korea’s decision to halt nuclear tests and intercontinental missile launches, with Pyongyang’s chief ally saying the move would help promote denuclearization in the flashpoint region.

“China believes the decision to stop nuclear tests and focus on developing the economy and improving people’s living standards will help further ease the situation on the Korean peninsula and help to promote the process of denuclearization and attempts to find a political settlement,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said in a statement.

Pyongyang’s declaration, long sought by Washington, will be seen as a crucial step in the fast diplomatic dance on and around the Korean peninsula.

It comes less than a week before North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meets South Korean leader Moon Jae-in for a summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, and ahead of a much-anticipated encounter with Trump himself.

The North had developed its weapons in what he called a “great victory,” and so “no nuclear test and intermediate-range and inter-continental ballistic rocket test-fire are necessary for the DPRK now.”

“The mission of the northern nuclear test ground has thus come to an end,” he added at the gathering of the central committee of the Workers’ Party, according to the official KCNA news agency.

The party decided that nuclear blasts and ICBM launches will cease as of Saturday — the North has not carried any out since November — and the atomic test site at Punggye-ri will be dismantled to “transparently guarantee” the end of testing.

Within minutes of the report being issued, Trump tweeted: “This is very good news for North Korea and the World — big progress! Look forward to our Summit.”