North Korea appeared to destroy at least three
nuclear tunnels, observation buildings, a metal foundry and living quarters at its
Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Thursday, in a process observed by invited international journalists.
A CNN crew at the remote mountain site in the country's north witnessed explosions at nuclear tunnels 2, 3 and 4, from observation decks about 500 meters away.
They were among two dozen journalists invited into the country to observe the apparent destruction of the site, which comes just weeks before a planned meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.
The journalists spent about 10 hours on the ground at the nuclear test site before boarding a train for the 11-hour journey back to the North Korean coastal city of Wonsan.
However, no weapons inspectors or nonproliferation experts were invited to witness the event, and it was unclear whether the explosions rendered the tunnels inoperable, or only caused limited damage.
Explosives seen in tunnelsNorth Korea announced on April 20 that the country had "realized nuclear weaponization," and would no longer need to test nuclear weapons. To demonstrate its commitment, it said it would destroy the nuclear test site.
North Korea said inviting international media to the event would "ensure transparency of discontinuance of the nuclear test."
Before the explosions, the journalists said they were invited to look inside three of the four tunnels, which appeared to be rigged with explosives, before moving a safe distance away to witness their detonation.
The amount and type of explosives used were not described by the regime. The CNN journalists present described seeing "soccer ball" sized and shaped explosives, rigged alongside one another, visible for a distance of around 35 meters inside the tunnels. Officials provided very little technical information and declined to confirm how far the tunnels extended into the mountain.
The journalists watched a succession of explosions, and when they were finished were allowed closer to inspect the damage. Each tunnel was caved in, with rubble blocking the entrance.
A deputy director of the North Korean nuclear research institute, who refused to give his name, addressed the journalists at the beginning and the end of the day. "The dismantling of the nuclear test ground conducted with a high level of transparency has clearly attested once again to the proactive and peace-loving efforts of the government of the DPRK," he said after the explosions, referring to North Korea.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests at the site, which lies more than 200 miles (370 kilometers) north of Pyongyang, the most recent and powerful of which was in September 2017.
There are four tunnels at the site, although journalists only witnessed the destruction of three. A fourth tunnel used for one nuclear test in 2006 had already been shut down, North Korean officials said. The other five tests were all carried out in tunnel 2.
Equipment confiscatedBefore Thursday's explosions, experts had warned that the tunnels' destruction could destroy valuable evidence of the state of North Korea's weapons program. They told CNN they would want to take samples, as well as radiation counters to assess the levels in the atmosphere.
Journalists who attempted to take radiation measuring equipment into North Korea said it had been confiscated.
Tom Cheshire, a correspondent with Britain's Sky News, said his team's satellite phone and radiation dosimeter -- a device to measure nuclear radiation -- were taken away by security at Wonsan airport. Chinese journalists also had equipment confiscated.
Chang-Hoon Shin, senior research fellow with the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy, told CNN after the tunnels' destruction that North Korea could have shown itself to be truly transparent by inviting experts to the site -- and warned against assessing the blowing-up of the tunnels as "comparable to the gesture of
denuclearization."
Srinivasan Sitaraman, a political science professor at Clark University and expert on North Korea, said Thursday's display did not mean that Pyongyang was giving up its arsenal of nuclear weapons.
"Shutting down this test site suggests that North Korea (maybe) will not test again at this site," he said. "Shutting down of this test site also does not tell us anything about the state of North Korean ballistic missile testing, especially its Hwasong-15 ICBMs," he added, referring to the intercontinental missile North Korea tested for the first time last November.
Delicate diplomacyThe purported destruction of the nuclear test site comes amid increasing skepticism that Trump and Kim will follow through on plans to meet in Singapore on June 12.
In scathing statements Thursday, Choe Son Hui, a vice-minister in the North Korean Foreign Ministry, called US Vice President Mike Pence a "political dummy" over comments he made about "the Libya model."
The Libya model refers to the deal the US struck with former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to abandon his country's nuclear aspirations. Less than a decade later, he was ousted from power and killed with the help of NATO-backed forces.
Comparisons to Libya were first raised by National Security Adviser John Bolton in late April, and repeated by Pence earlier this week, who also repeated the suggestion that Kim's regime could be threatened if talks fail.
"This will only end like the Libya model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal," Pence told Fox News' Martha MacCallum.
North Korea has also taken issue with joint military drills between the US and South Korea, and suddenly postponed inter-Korean talks earlier this month.
Trump said Tuesday that the meeting could be delayed, but both sides appear to be moving ahead with the planning process.