PUNGGYE-RI, North Korea — North Korea carried out what it said is the demolition of its nuclear test site Thursday, setting off a series of explosions over several hours in the presence of foreign journalists.

The explosions at the nuclear test site deep in the mountains of the North’s sparsely populated northeast were centered on three tunnels at the underground site and a number of buildings in the surrounding area.

The planned closing was previously announced by leader Kim Jong Un ahead of his planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump that is scheduled to take place next month.

The demolition came as the North lobbed another verbal salvo at Washington, calling Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” and saying it is just as ready to meet in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table.

The North’s decision to close the Punggye-ri nuclear test site has generally been seen as a welcome gesture by Kim to set a positive tone ahead of the summit.

Even so, it is not an irreversible move and would need to be followed by many more significant measures to meet Trump’s demands for real denuclearization.

By bringing in a small group of television journalists and other members of the news media, the North is likely hoping to have dramatic images of the closing — including explosions to collapse tunnel entrances — broadcast around the world.

The North did not invite international nuclear weapons inspectors to the ceremony.

The first blast visiting journalists witnessed happened about 11 a.m. local time. North Korean officials said it collapsed the north tunnel, which was used for five nuclear tests from 2009 to last year.

Two other explosions about 2:20 p.m. and 4 p.m. demolished the west and south tunnels, according to officials.

Thursday’s demolition also involved the destruction of observation posts and barracks used by guards and other workers at the facility.

Another tunnel on the eastern side of the facility was shut down after an initial nuclear test in 2006.

The journalists who were allowed to witness the demolition arrived in the morning and stayed at the site for about nine hours.

Getting to the remote site required an 11-hour overnight train journey from Wonsan, a port city east of the capital, Pyongyang.

The outburst at Pence, issued in the name of a top Foreign Ministry official, comes on the heels of another sharp rebuke of Trump’s newly appointed national security adviser, John Bolton, and has raised concerns that a major gap has opened between the sides just weeks before the June 12 summit in Singapore.

In both cases, Pyongyang was trying to push back against hard-line comments suggesting North Korea might end up like Libya if it doesn’t move forward quickly and irreversibly with concrete measures to get rid of its nuclear weapons.

Choe Son Hui, a vice minister of foreign affairs, was quoted Thursday by the North’s state-run news agency slamming as “ignorant” and “stupid” comments Pence made in an interview with Fox News that compared the nuclear-capable North to Libya.

Libya gave up its program at an early stage only to see its longtime dictator overthrown and brutally killed years later.

The summit plan has hit a number of speed bumps recently as both sides have begun trading barbs and taking tougher positions.

Trump met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday at the White House for consultations and suggested the summit could be delayed or even called off entirely.

Even so, both sides still seem to want to hold the meeting, which would be unprecedented.

Success in talks would be a huge accomplishment for Trump. Meeting with the U.S. president as an equal on the world stage would be a major coup for Kim. </s> North Korea has carried out what it says is the demolition of its nuclear test site in the presence of foreign journalists.

FILE - This Wednesday, May 23, 2018 satellite file image provided by DigitalGlobe, shows the Punggye-ri test site in North Korea. The demolition happened Thursday at the site deep in the mountains of the North’s sparsely populated northeast. The planned closing was previously announced by leader Kim Jong Un ahead of his planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump next month. (DigitalGlobe via AP, File)

North Korea carried out what it said is the demolition of its nuclear test site Thursday, setting off a series of explosions over several hours in the presence of foreign journalists.

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.

The planned closing was previously announced by leader Kim Jong Un ahead of his planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, which is scheduled to take place next month.

The demolition came as the North lobbed another verbal salvo at Washington, calling Vice-President Mike Pence a “political dummy” and saying it is just as ready to meet in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table.

The North’s decision to close the Punggye-ri nuclear test site has generally been seen as a welcome gesture by Kim to set a positive tone ahead of the summit. Even so, it is not an irreversible move and would need to be followed by many more significant measures to meet Trump’s demands for real denuclearization.

By bringing in a small group of television journalists and other members of the news media, the North is likely hoping to have dramatic images of the closing — including explosions to collapse tunnel entrances — broadcast around the world.

The group of journalists that witnessed the demolition included an Associated Press Television crew.

The North did not invite international nuclear weapons inspectors to the ceremony.

The first blast visiting journalists witnessed happened at around 11 a.m. local time. North Korean officials said it collapsed the 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. demolished the west and south tunnels, according to officials.

Thursday’s demolition also involved the destruction of observation posts and barracks used by guards and other workers at the facility.

Another tunnel on the eastern side of the facility was shut down after an initial nuclear test in 2006.

The journalists who were allowed to witness the demolition arrived in the morning and stayed at the site for around nine hours.

Getting to the remote site required an 11-hour overnight train journey from Wonsan, a port city east of the capital, Pyongyang.

The outburst at Pence, issued in the name of a top Foreign Ministry official, comes on the heels of another sharp rebuke of Trump’s newly appointed national security adviser, John Bolton, and has raised concerns that a major gap has opened between the two sides just weeks before the June 12 summit in Singapore.

In both cases, Pyongyang was trying to push back against hard-line comments suggesting North Korea may end up like Libya if it doesn’t move forward quickly and irreversibly with concrete measures to get rid of its nuclear weapons.

Choe Son Hui, a vice minister of foreign affairs, was quoted Thursday by the North’s state-run news agency slamming as “ignorant” and “stupid” comments Pence made in an interview with Fox News that compared the nuclear-capable North to Libya. Libya gave up its program at an early stage only to see its longtime dictator overthrown and brutally killed years later.

The summit plan has hit a number of speed bumps recently as both sides have begun trading barbs and taking tougher positions. Trump met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday at the White House for consultations and suggested the summit could be delayed or even called off entirely.

Even so, both sides still seem to want to hold the meeting, which would be unprecedented.

Success in talks would be a huge accomplishment for Trump. Meeting with the U.S. president as an equal on the world stage would be a major coup for Kim.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. </s> North Korea is reportedly preparing its Punggye-ri nuclear test site for international inspectors.

The development was reported by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing the country's spy agency.

In May, Sky's Tom Cheshire was the only British broadcaster invited to witness the apparent demolition of the facility, although no inspectors were present.

He watched a series of explosions with North Korea state media claiming the site had been completely dismantled in the blasts "to ensure the transparency of discontinuance of nuclear test".

At the time, the deputy director of the North Korea Nuclear Weapons Institute told Sky News that the destruction of the facility had been "conducted with high levels of transparency" in a bid to bring "peace and stability" to the Korean peninsula and the world.

The unnamed official added: "The discontinuance of nuclear tests is an important process in moving towards global nuclear disarmament and we will continue to join hands with all peace-loving people in building a peaceful world, a new independent world where the dreams and ideals of humanity are realised."

The Punggye-ri facility was used for several nuclear weapons tests, including a suspected hydrogen bomb in September 2017.

Following a summit between North and South Korea in September Pyongyang agreed to allow international inspectors to observe a "permanent dismantlement" of its other key missile facilities, and would take additional steps such as closing its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but only if the United States took "reciprocal measures".

South Korean president Moon Jae-in said he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had agreed that the Korean Peninsula should turn into a "land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats". </s> North Korea has carried out what it said is the demolition of its nuclear test site, setting off a series of explosions over several hours in the presence of foreign journalists.

The explosions at the site deep in the mountains of the North’s sparsely populated north east were centred on three tunnels into the underground site and a number of observation towers in the surrounding area.

The planned closing was previously announced by leader Kim Jong Un ahead of his planned summit with US President Donald Trump next month.

The demolition came as the North lobbed another verbal salvo at Washington, calling Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” and saying it is just as ready to meet in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table.

The North’s decision to close the Punggye-ri nuclear test site has generally been seen as a welcome gesture by Mr Kim to set a positive tone ahead of the summit.

This May 23 2018 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the Punggye-ri test site in North Korea (DigitalGlobe via AP)

Even so, it is not an irreversible move and would need to be followed by many more significant measures to meet Mr Trump’s demands for real denuclearisation.

By bringing in the foreign media, mainly television networks, the North is apparently hoping to have images of the closing – including explosions to collapse tunnel entrances – broadcast around the world.

The North did not invite international inspectors to the ceremony, which limits its value as a serious concession.

The outburst at Mr Pence, issued in the name of a top Foreign Ministry official, comes on the heels of another sharp rebuke of Mr Trump’s newly appointed national security adviser John Bolton, and has raised concerns that a major gap has opened between the two sides just weeks before the June 12 summit in Singapore.

In both cases, Pyongyang was trying to push back against hard-line comments suggesting North Korea may end up like Libya if it does not move forward quickly and irreversibly with concrete measures to get rid of its nuclear weapons.

Choe Son Hui, a vice minister of foreign affairs, was quoted by the North’s state-run news agency slamming as “ignorant” and “stupid” comments Mr Pence made in an interview with Fox News that compared the nuclear-capable North to Libya.

Libya gave up its programme at an early stage only to see its longtime dictator overthrown and brutally killed years later.

The summit plan has hit a number of speed bumps recently as both sides have begun trading barbs and taking tougher positions.

Mr Trump met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday at the White House for consultations and suggested the summit could be delayed or even called off entirely.

Even so, both sides still seem to want to hold the meeting, which would be unprecedented.

Success in talks would be a huge accomplishment for Mr Trump, while meeting with the US president as an equal on the world stage would be a major coup for Mr Kim. </s> North Korea will destroy its nuclear test site later this month, ahead of a summit with the United States, it said Saturday, pledging to blow up its tunnels in front of invited foreign media.

US President Donald Trump praised the North’s decision to dismantle the Punggye-ri test site in a ceremony scheduled between May 23-25, the latest step in leader Kim Jong Un’s charm offensive.

Dialogue brokered by Seoul has seen US-North Korea relations go from trading personal insults and threats of war last year to a summit between Kim and Trump due in Singapore on June 12.

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.

Washington is seeking the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” of the North and stresses that verification will be key.

Punggye-ri, in the northeast of the country, has hosted 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.

Kim has declared the development of the North’s nuclear force complete and that it had no further need for the site.

The latest measures will see the tunnels of the test site blown up and their entrances completely blocked, Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said, according to the official KCNA news agency.

All observation facilities and research institutes would be removed, along with guards, it said, “and the surrounding area of the test ground be completely closed”.

Reporters from China, Russia, the United States, Britain and South Korea would be allowed to cover the event on site to show it “in a transparent manner”.

Limits on foreign journalists were due to space constraints, it said, as the site was in an “uninhabited deep mountain area”.

South Korea welcomed the announcement, which signalled the North’s willingness to carry out its pledges “not just in words but in action”.

“We hope the sound of the dynamite blowing up the tunnels at Punggye-ri will be the first salute in our journey towards a nuclear-free Korean peninsula,” the South’s presidential spokesman said.

Analysts said the move was positive but limited in its scope.

It was “not bad, but a cost-free signal”, tweeted MIT political science professor Vipin Narang.

Given the stage it had already reached, Pyongyang “may feel like they don’t need to test anything for a while”, he said.

Jeffrey Lewis, of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies, expected that the North “will sanitise the site before letting anyone see it”.

Saturday’s announcement is the latest move in a rapid sequence of events on the Korean peninsula triggered by the Winter Olympics in the South.

Tensions had been mounting for years as Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes saw it subjected to multiple rounds of increasingly strict sanctions by the UN Security Council, the US, EU, South Korea and others, and Trump last year threatened the North with “fire and fury”.

But since the Pyeongchang Games, Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to the unprecedented Singapore meeting, and Kim has twice visited China to meet President Xi Jinping, after not paying respects in the six years since he inherited power from his father.

The head of the UN’s World Food Programme said Saturday it appeared North Korea was “turning a new page in history”, following a four-day visit to the country.

David Beasley said he had enjoyed unprecedented access to the secretive state, telling BBC radio that North Korea’s leaders had a “sense of optimism”.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month affirmed their commitment to the goal of “realising, through complete denuclearisation, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula” at a summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides their countries.

But the phrase is a diplomatic euphemism open to interpretation on both sides.

Pyongyang has long wanted to see an end to the US military presence in — and nuclear umbrella over — the South, but it invaded its neighbour in 1950 and is the only one of the two Koreas to possess nuclear weapons.

This week the North released three Korean-Americans it had detained into the care of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was making his second trip to Pyongyang in two months.

However, Trump also withdrew the United States from a nuclear pact with Iran, raising questions over whether Pyongyang would trust Washington’s promises.

Pompeo Friday promised the US would work to rebuild North Korea’s sanctions-hit economy if it agreed to surrender its nuclear arsenal. </s> North Korea will destroy its nuclear test site later this month, ahead of a summit with the United States, it said Saturday, pledging to blow up its tunnels in front of invited foreign media.

US President Donald Trump praised the North’s decision to dismantle the Punggye-ri test site in a ceremony scheduled between May 23-25, the latest step in leader Kim Jong Un’s charm offensive.

“Thank you, a very smart and gracious gesture!” Trump tweeted.

Dialogue brokered by Seoul has seen US-North Korea relations go from trading personal insults and threats of war last year to a summit between Kim and Trump due in Singapore on June 12.

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.

Washington is seeking the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” of the North and stresses that verification will be key.

Punggye-ri, in the northeast of the country, has hosted 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.

Kim has declared the development of the North’s nuclear force complete and that it had no further need for the site.

The latest measures will see the tunnels of the test site blown up and their entrances completely blocked, Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said, according to the official KCNA news agency.

All observation facilities and research institutes would be removed, along with guards, it said, “and the surrounding area of the test ground be completely closed”.

Reporters from China, Russia, the United States, Britain and South Korea would be allowed to cover the event on site to show it “in a transparent manner”.

Limits on foreign journalists were due to space constraints, it said, as the site was in an “uninhabited deep mountain area”.

South Korea welcomed the announcement, which signalled the North’s willingness to carry out its pledges “not just in words but in action”.

“We hope the sound of the dynamite blowing up the tunnels at Punggye-ri will be the first salute in our journey towards a nuclear-free Korean peninsula,” the South’s presidential spokesman said.

Analysts said the move was positive but limited in its scope.

It was “not bad, but a cost-free signal”, tweeted MIT political science professor Vipin Narang.

Given the stage it had already reached, Pyongyang “may feel like they don’t need to test anything for a while”, he said.

Jeffrey Lewis, of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies, expected that the North “will sanitise the site before letting anyone see it”.

Saturday’s announcement is the latest move in a rapid sequence of events on the Korean peninsula triggered by the Winter Olympics in the South.

Tensions had been mounting for years as Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes saw it subjected to multiple rounds of increasingly strict sanctions by the UN Security Council, the US, EU, South Korea and others, and Trump last year threatened the North with “fire and fury”.

But since the Pyeongchang Games, Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to the unprecedented Singapore meeting, and Kim has twice visited China to meet President Xi Jinping, after not paying respects in the six years since he inherited power from his father.

The head of the UN’s World Food Programme said Saturday it appeared North Korea was “turning a new page in history”, following a four-day visit to the country.

David Beasley said he had enjoyed unprecedented access to the secretive state, telling BBC radio that North Korea’s leaders had a “sense of optimism”.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month affirmed their commitment to the goal of “realising, through complete denuclearisation, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula” at a summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides their countries.

But the phrase is a diplomatic euphemism open to interpretation on both sides.

Pyongyang has long wanted to see an end to the US military presence in — and nuclear umbrella over — the South, but it invaded its neighbour in 1950 and is the only one of the two Koreas to possess nuclear weapons.

This week the North released three Korean-Americans it had detained into the care of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was making his second trip to Pyongyang in two months.

However, Trump also withdrew the United States from a nuclear pact with Iran, raising questions over whether Pyongyang would trust Washington’s promises.

Pompeo Friday promised the US would work to rebuild North Korea’s sanctions-hit economy if it agreed to surrender its nuclear arsenal. </s> North Korea has scheduled a “ceremony” to dismantle its nuclear on May 23-25 ahead of President Donald Trump’s summit with leader Kim Jong Un next month, state media said Saturday.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that all the tunnels at the country’s northeastern testing ground will be destroyed by explosion and that observation and research facilities and ground-based testing units will also be removed. The dramatic and symbolic event is part of the Hermit Kingdom’s pledge to discontinue nuclear tests.

“The Nuclear Weapon Institute and other concerned institutions are taking technical measures for dismantling the northern nuclear test ground of the DPRK in order to ensure transparency of discontinuance of the nuclear test,” said the announcement. DPRK is an acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The nuclear site that will be dismantled is located in Pukyong, Yonhap News reported.

The announcement comes after Trump said he would hold a summit with Kim in Singapore on June 12. It will be the first meeting ever between a sitting U.S. president and the leader of North Korea.

Kim had revealed plans to shut down the nuclear test site during his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said North Korea can look forward to “a future brimming with peace and prosperity” if it agrees to quickly give up its nuclear weapons.

The North said they plan to invite journalists from the United States, South Korea, China, Russia and Britain to inspect the process.

North Korea’s six known nuclear tests have taken place in Punggye-ri, a location in the northeastern part of North Korea where a system of tunnels have been dug under Mount Mantap, Reuters reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> North Korea’s grand gesture to dismantle its nuclear site is now a metaphor for the fate of the Trump-Kim summit.

Yesterday (May 24) the rogue regime appeared to destroy its only known nuclear testing site, Punggye-ri, in three explosions witnessed by invited members of the foreign press. Just hours later, Donald Trump called off his much anticipated June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un. In an emotional break-up letter, Trump didn’t mention the demolition of the site, but cited the North’s “tremendous anger and open hostility” as reasons for scrapping the plan.

The coincidence comes as the US and North Korea showed greater discrepancies in their approaches on how to achieve denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in the past few weeks. Trump administration officials, including national security adviser John Bolton and vice president Mike Pence, have called on North Korea to follow the “Libya model”—which the North did not take to kindly given how a US-backed invasion later killed Muammar Qaddafi—by giving up its nuclear program upfront. In a fiery rebuttal, North Korea blasted Pence as a “political dummy” and threatened the US with a nuclear strike. The provocative remarks also overshadowed the self-described “peace-loving” country’s gesture to release three American citizens earlier this month who had been held in the country.

Experts have said that the demolition is a largely symbolic move that won’t affect North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. In addition, it’s unclear whether the explosions rendered the tunnels at the testing site unusable, or only caused limited damage. No international inspectors were invited to witness the demolition, and journalists at the scene had their radiation-measuring equipment confiscated, according to CNN. </s> North Korea is preparing to allow international inspectors into its Punggye-ri test site, the Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a South Korean politician.

Pyongyang has stopped its nuclear and missile tests over the past year during a rapprochement with the United States and South Korea, and it blew up facilities at Punggye-ri in May in the presence of foreign journalists.

However, its refusal to allow international experts to observe the destruction of the site, which has been the staging ground for all six of its nuclear tests, including its most powerful one – reportedly of an H-bomb – last September, drew criticism that its actions were for show and could be reversed.

At a summit between the North and South’s leaders last month, Pyongyang finally agreed to allow foreign inspectors to observe a “permanent dismantlement” of key missile facilities, and to move towards closing its main Yongbyon nuclear complex in return for reciprocal US measures.

News of the apparent latest gesture came from Kim Min-ki, a member of the ruling Democratic Party, who told reporters in Seoul that intelligence officials had observed what they believed to be preparations for possible inspections at Punggye-ri and the Sohae Satellite launching ground.
North Korea sets off a series of explosions to demolish the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site to build confidence before the scheduled summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.