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SATELLITE PHOTOS INDICATE North Korea has begun dismantling its nuclear test site ahead of a historic summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, a US monitor has said.
In a move welcomed by Washington and Seoul, North Korea said at the weekend it will “completely” destroy the Punggye-ri test site, in a ceremony scheduled between 23-25 May in front of invited foreign media.
But no observers from international atomic monitoring agencies have been invited, raising concerns over the openness of the process.
Punggye-ri, in the northeast of the country, 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.
North Korea pledged to close the testing ground after Kim last month declared the country’s nuclear force complete and said it had no further need for the complex.
The respected 38 North website said that satellite images dated 7 May showed “the first definitive evidence that dismantlement of the test site was already well under way”.
Several key operational buildings as well as smaller sheds had been razed and rails connecting the tunnels to their waste piles were removed, the monitoring group said.
Excavation of a new tunnel has also been halted since late March, it added.
Images showed preparatory work for the destruction ceremony had also begun, including a newly positioned foundation among the waste piles believed to have been built for the invited journalists.
“It is conceivably for a future camera position to record the closure of the West Portal,” the group said.
However, no tunnel entrances appear to have been permanently closed and some main buildings are still intact, it added, saying the destruction of those facilities was likely to be carried out in front of the foreign media.
Dialogue brokered by South Korea has seen US-North Korea relations go from trading personal insults and threats of war last year to a summit between Kim and Trump which will be held in Singapore on 12 June.
Kim’s latest diplomatic overture has seen him hold a summit with the South’s President Moon Jae-in and travel twice in less than two months to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The two Koreas are due to meet for a high-level meeting tomorrow to discuss follow-up measures from their summit last month, Seoul’s unification ministry said.
Washington is seeking the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” of the North and stresses that verification will be key.
But sceptics warn that Pyongyang has yet to make any public commitment to give up its arsenal, which includes missiles capable of reaching the United States.
Satellite photos from last month showed signs of construction at the North’s Yongbyon nuclear facility.
The purpose of the new buildings at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre was unknown, 38 North has said, with “no observable signs that initial reactor operations are imminent”.
North Korea blew up a cooling tower at the nuclear facility in 2007 following a deal with the US, but soon restarted the reactor.
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Isn’t this the same test site that collapsed a few months ago?
@B9xiRspG: Yes. It was outiving it’s useful life and would hace had to be shit down soon to avoid becoming dangerous.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: That must be one dangerous shit
Massive win for Daddy (Trump)
@Philip Murphy: That’s what he thinks.
@Philip Murphy: good one
@Mel Fitzpatrick: Trump, the despicable human being has offered to completely revamp and modernise NK if the war is officially ended. Sit on that.
@Philip Murphy: if you believe this charade, fair play to ya.
@Mel Fitzpatrick: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44091279US offers to help rebuild N Korea economy if it denuclearises
BBC News – May 11, 2018
We can pretend it’s all a charade just for you : )
@Philip Murphy: I understand Philip what has been said by Trump and Kim but this will simply not happen.
If North Korea demilitarises its nuclear capability there is no room for Kimmie anymore.
Send in Hans Blix!
@Dotty Dunleary: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5TEvacFETvM
John Bolton also said last night, that North Korea must give over all of it`s Nukes to the US before any sanctions are lifted, he wants them stored in Oak Ridge Tennessee.
Bolton did not say whether the weapons should be stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory or the nearby Y-12 National Security Complex, whose primary mission is nuclear weapons production.
the Y-12 facility is the same place where equipment and documents from Libya’s nuclear and ballistic program were shipped and stored after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to dismantle his weapons of mass destruction in 2003.
….Then Nato bombed Libya into the stone age in 2011, Gaddafi was overthrown, and Libya became an open slave market run by head choppers,
Be careful when you do business with the US.
@Pearse Mc Mullen: the d1(ks are coming to f u
I can’t help but think this is a stunt & was planned all along.
Country number six dealt with for the time being under PNAC just Iran left…..I take it the north koreans know that any agreement with the US you wouldn’t wipe your arse with.
@BananaRepublic1922: And you certainly won’t have anything left to wipe your arse with.
“Completely destroy” = test nuke on it?
North Korea are delighed that USA are going to pump money into their deflated and broken country. I hope China has a part to play as they have been funding them for decades.
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