Riot police attempting to disperse residents taking part in an anti-THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) protest in Seongju, South Korea on Monday — Reuters SEOUL, Apr 23 (AFP): South Korea silenced on Monday its battery of giant loudspeakers that blast messages at the North's border soldiers, in a conciliatory gesture before Friday's historic inter-Korean summit.
Despite tentative hopes of a breakthrough over Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal, US President Donald Trump warned that a solution to the North Korean crisis remains a "long way" off, as he prepares for his own planned meeting with Kim Jong Un.
Observers are weighing the significance of an array of headline-grabbing offers this year from the North-including discussions with arch foes Seoul and Washington, and most recently a weekend promise to suspend nuclear and missile tests-after months of surging tensions. The South's President Moon Jae-in on Monday hailed Pyongyang's promise to stop major weapons trials as "significant". He is due to meet Kim on Friday in the truce village of Panmunjom at the heavily-fortified frontier.
Earlier, construction trucks moved into a South Korean base housing a US anti-missile system on Monday, infuriating villagers opposed to its deployment, two days after North Korea vowed to suspend nuclear tests and ahead of a North-South summit.
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