Nuke test site destroyed as global media watches
PUNGGYE-RI, North Korea— North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made good on his promise to demolish his country’s nuclear test site, which was formally closed in a series of huge explosions Thursday as a group of foreign journalists from the U.S., Britain, Russia, China and South Korea looked on.
The explosions at the test site deep in the mountains of the North’s sparsely populated northeast centered on three tunnels at the underground site and a number of buildings in the surrounding area. North Korea held a closing ceremony afterward with officials from its nuclear arms program 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.” North Korea has conducted all six of its underground nuclear tests at the site.
“The dismantling of the nuclear test ground conducted with highThe 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 late Thursday.
North Korea’s formal name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea also did not invite international nuclear weapons inspectors, opting instead for the impact of the television footage to impress the world.
event was, indeed, impressive.
The first blast the visiting journalists witnessed came at around 11 a.m. 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, at around 2:20 p.m. and 4 p.m., collapsed the west and south tunnels, according to officials.
The journalists were allowed to stay at the site for about nine hours.