Kim Jong Un says North Korea has suspended its nuclear missile testing

North Korea has suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests and will shut down a nuclear testing facility, the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, announced Saturday.

“We no longer need any nuclear test or test launches of intermediate- and intercontinental-range ballistic missiles,” Kim said in a statement, according to North Korean state media. “Because of this, the northern nuclear test site has finished its mission.”

While Kim said nothing about actually dismantling those weapons, U.S. President Donald Trump immediately seized on the announcement, tweeting, “This is very good news for North Korea and the World — big progress!”

The president’s jubilation, however, is likely premature. Without more information about North Korea’s arsenal, it may be impossible to know if North Korea has truly given up and “denuclearized.” Right now, Americans aren’t even sure where the Hermit Kingdom keeps its weapons, or how it produces them.

“If we make a deal, we’d have to trust that they told us about all of them in the first place and that they weren’t dummies or duds,” Melissa Hanham, a Middlebury Institute of International Studies senior research associate, told VICE News last month.

Still, North Korea’s announcement is the latest in a series of overtures that suggest Kim is at least open to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

• North Korea and South Korea marched under the same flag during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. While the two teams completed separately in almost every event, South Korean athletes were reportedly invited to train at Kim’s luxury ski resort.

• Kim took an unprecedented trip to China in March, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to Chinese state media. The meeting was Kim’s first trip outside North Korea since he took power in 2011.

• Finally, North Korea extended an offer to meet with President Trump — which Trump has accepted. CIA Director (and Secretary of State nominee) Mike Pompeo reportedly took a top-secret trip to North Korea earlier this month to meet with Kim and lay the groundwork for his face-to-face encounter with Trump.