By the Gazette Editorial Board North Korean leader Kim Jong-un should be praised for "promptly – and cordially – accepting an invitation extended by South Korean President Moon Jae-in" for North Korean athletes to take part in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. The South Korean president's invitation was considered to be the biggest gesture Seoul has made towards peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula. Two days later, the North Korean leader made a bigger reciprocal gesture. Pyongyang announced that it had decided to suspend nuclear missile tests. This great step taken by Pyongyang also indicated that it would end its tests of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. According to Pyongyang's state-run KCNA news agency, the suspension went into immediate effect on the day Kim Jong-un gave the order. The world's major powers and big economies welcomed this unprecedented step by North Korea, which preceded a historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim. Cairo promptly praised North Korea's announcement, saying that this step would help establish peace in this Asian region. Cairo said it hoped that the suspension of nuclear missile tests would eventually lead to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Regionally, Egypt has been campaigning for decades to remove the weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East. In deciding to suspend his country's nuclear tests, the North Korean leader wisely and understandably refused to touch the issue of the US military base in Seoul. The Trump-Kim talks must have altered Pyongyang's long-held perception that the presence of US troops in Seoul was intimidating. It must be said that shutting down nuclear missile test sites will help North Korea re-join the international community at a faster pace. By doing so, the North Korean leadership has proved that it has embraced a better and more positive vision of the realities and dimensions of the challenges facing its people in the 21st Century. In the meantime, by clearing its record and improving its image regionally and internationally, North Korea will encourage regional and international partners to help make use of its potential and capabilities to serve the interests of both the North Korean people and the international community.
