Journalists watch Punggye-ri nuclear test site destruction
Just weeks ahead of a planned but then abandoned summit with US President Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un made good on his promise to demolish North Korea’s nuclear test site, which was formally closed in a series of huge explosions on Thursday (local time) as a group of foreign journalists looked on.
The explosions at the nuclear test site deep in the mountains of the North’s sparsely populated northeast were centred on three tunnels at the underground site and a number of buildings in the surrounding area.
North Korea held a closing ceremony afterwards with officials from its nuclear arms programme in attendance.
North Korea’s state media called the closure of the site part of a process to build ‘‘a nuclearfree, peaceful world’’ and ‘‘global nuclear disarmament.’’
‘‘The dismantling of the nuclear test ground conducted with high-level transparency has clearly attested once again to the proactive and peace-loving efforts of the DPRK government being made for assuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and over the world,’’ the North’s official news agency reported.
North Korea’s formal name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim announced his plan to close the site, where North Korea has conducted all six of its underground nuclear tests, ahead of a summit with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in in April and the planned summit with Trump, which had been scheduled to take place next month in Singapore but which Trump has cancelled.
North Korea’s decision to close the Punggye-ri nuclear test site had generally been seen as a welcome gesture by Kim.
In a statement, South Korea’s National Security Council called the closing the North’s ‘‘first measure toward complete denuclearisation.’’
Not everyone is as optimistic, however.
The closing of the site is not an irreversible move and would need to be followed by many more significant measures to meet Trump’s demand for real denuclearisation.
North Korea also did not invite international nuclear weapons inspectors, opting instead for the impact of the television footage to impress the world.
The event was, indeed, impressive. The first blast the visiting journalists witnessed came mid-morning after they made a 12-hour plus trip by train and convoy through the night and over bumpy dirt roads. That explosion collapsed the complex’s north tunnel, which was used for five nuclear tests between 2009 and last year. Two other explosions, in the afternoon, collapsed the west and south tunnels, according to officials. North Korea said the demolition of the facility did not cause any leakage of radioactive materials or have any ‘‘adverse impact on the surrounding ecological environment.’’ The journalists were allowed to stay at the site for about nine hours. A former NAACP leader in Washington state whose life unravelled after she was outed as a white woman pretending to be black has been charged with welfare fraud. News station KHQTV reports that Rachel Dolezal, who legally changed her name to Nkechi Diallo in 2016, was charged this week with theft by welfare fraud, perjury and false verification for public assistance. Court documents say she illegally received $8747 in food assistance and $100 in child care assistance from August 2015 through November 2017. An investigation started in March 2017 when a state investigator received information that she had written a book. Documents say she had deposited nearly $84,000 into her bank account without reporting it. They say the former activist told investigators she ‘‘fully disclosed her information’’ and declined to answer further questions. Kensington Palace says Prince William will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories at the end of June – the first British royal to make an official visit there. The prince will begin his June 24-28 trip in Amman, Jordan, then travel to Jerash in Jordan; Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel; and Ramallah in the West Bank. No British royal has ever made an official visit to Israel, whose occupation of the Palestinian territories the UK considers illegal. William’s father Prince Charles attended the 2016 funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres in a private capacity. This is also the first official royal visit to the Palestinian territories. It comes at the British government’s request. The trip was announced earlier this year, but the dates and destinations were disclosed yesterday.