Foreign media head to N Korea to see nuclear site destruction
BEIJING: Foreign journalists headed to North Korea on Tuesday to watch the promised destruction of its nuclear test site, a move seen as a goodwill gesture before a planned summit with the US.
Reporters from China, the US and Russia departed on a charter flight from Beijing, according to Chinese state broadcaster CGTN which is part of the contingent.
The group will cover the demolition of the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site inside a mountain in the northeast of the country, which is scheduled to take place between Wednesday to Friday, depending on the weather.
Pyongyang announced earlier this month that it planned to “completely” destroy the facility by blowing up the test site’s access tunnels, a move welcomed by Washington and Seoul.
The decision came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the country’s nuclear force complete and said it had no further need for the complex
Experts are divided over whether the move will render the site useless — previous similar gestures have been rapidly reversed when the international mood soured.
Punggye-ri has been the site of all six of the North’s nuclear tests, the latest and by far the most powerful in September last year, which Pyongyang said was an H-bomb.
Dialogue brokered by South Korea has seen Us-north Korea relations go from trading personal insults and threats of war after that test to planning for a summit.