SEOUL, September 19, 2018 (Reuters) - North Korea said on Wednesday it would permanently abolish its key missile facilities in the presence of foreign experts, the latest gesture by leader Kim Jong Un to revive faltering talks with Washington over his country's nuclear programme. Speaking at a joint news conference in Pyongyang, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said they agreed to turn the Korean peninsula into a "land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats". They said the North was also willing to close its main nuclear complex if the United States took unspecified "reciprocal action." The pledges Kim and Moon made at their third summit this year could inject fresh momentum into the stalled nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang and lay the groundwork for another meeting Kim recently proposed to US President Donald Trump. "I don't think President Moon got everything he was seeking from these interactions, but Kim Jong Un gave Moon some tangible things for which he can take credit," said Michael Madden, an analyst at the Stimson Centre's 38 North think tank in Washington. "These are good-faith gestures which will likely facilitate further and more substantive negotiations," Madden said, adding a second summit between Kim and Trump was "highly probable". Kim pledged to work toward the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula" during his two meetings with Moon earlier this year and at his historic June summit with Trump in Singapore. But discussions over how to implement the vague commitments have since faltered. Washington is demanding concrete action towards denuclearisation, such as a full disclosure of North Korea's nuclear and missile facilities, before agreeing to key goals of Pyongyang - declaring an official end to the 1950-53 Korean War and easing tough international sanctions. Trump called the latest pledges "very exciting". "Kim Jong Un has agreed to allow nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts. In the meantime there will be no rocket or nuclear testing," Trump wrote on Twitter. Kim said he would visit Seoul in the near future, in what would be the first-ever visit to the South's capital by a North Korean leader. Moon said the visit was expected to take place by the end of the year. The leaders of the two Koreas also announced a series of steps to deepen bilateral exchanges in the economy, culture and sport.
