The official North Korean news agency reported that the country has scheduled the demolition of the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site before talks with the United States next month.
Reuters reports that the official Korean Central Agency says the site will be decommissioned between May 23 and 25, which would include "collapsing all its tunnels with explosions, blocking its entrances" and closing all its facilities. observation and security facilities. The announcement comes ahead of scheduled talks between US President Donald Trump and DPRK Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12. State media say that foreign journalists will be invited to witness the dismantling.
In April, North Korea said it would suspend its nuclear program, although experts were not convinced it was an important measure: the country had suspended its missile test program between 1999 and 2006, and had closed and restart the plant used to produce plutonium The experts also pointed out that it is possible that Kim Jong-Un is satisfied with the success of the program, which means that no further testing is necessary. Others pointed out that the statement was good propaganda before the next talks.
The country conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and September 2017, and stated that the final test was a hydrogen bomb. That explosion was the largest carried out by the country, and it was so powerful that it knocked down Mount Mantap by about a foot and a half and pushed it 12 feet to the sides. Given the power of that explosion, it is very possible that this test has disabled the test site, which means that it is possible that the country is not giving up anything by public dismantling.
