SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s promise to dismantle his country’s only known nuclear test site later this month has shone the spotlight on the secretive facility near the Chinese border. The Punggye-ri test site, located beneath a mountain in the country’s northeast, has hosted all six nuclear tests Pyongyang has conducted — most recently last September. The North on Saturday announced that it would hold a ceremony for the dismantling of the facility between May 23-25, blowing up its tunnels in front of invited foreign media.
The announcement comes as the diplomatic push for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons gathers pace ahead of Kim’s eagerly-awaited — and unprecedented — summit with US President Donald Trump on June 12. The site is located deep inside mountains in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, which borders China. Surrounded by high, craggy peaks and carved deep into a granite mountain more than 2,000 metres high, the test site is said to be an ideal venue to withstand the huge forces unleashed by nuclear blasts.
The presence of the site became known in 2006 when the North conducted its first nuclear test under Kim’s late father, longtime ruler Kim Jong Il. Activities have been closely watched through satellite imagery since then. Tunnels can be seen entering the site from different directions. The first test was staged in the eastern tunnel, the second and third in the western tunnel and the remainder in the northern tunnel, according to intelligence authorities.
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