Video: North Korea Blows Up Front of Nuclear Test Site

Reports began surfacing late Thursday and Friday from North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, where the government invited reporters to witness the destruction of buildings outside the facility’s three tunnels and what Pyongyang claimed was the total destruction of the tunnels used for weapons testing themselves.

N. Korea open to US talks 'any time' despite Trump axing summit

‘Grandstanding All Around’: Critics Pan North Korea’s Nuclear Test Site Demolition

North Korea conducted its demolition media event at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Thursday, setting off what observers described as a series of explosions that raised a plume of dust and smoke over nearby Mount Mantap. The event was intended to demonstrate Pyongyang’s commitment to denuclearization, but it only reinforced the skepticism of analysts around the world that dictator Kim Jong-un is more interested in destroying the evidence of past illegal nuclear activities. They also doubted the Punggye-ri site will be fully or permanently decommissioned.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) inspecting a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location

Nuclear Experts Fear North Korea Destroying Evidence at Test Site

Even as journalists trudge toward North Korea’s much-touted decommissioning of the nuclear weapons test site at Punggye-ri, nuclear weapons experts are worried the regime is using the media event to bank unearned international credibility while it destroys evidence of its illicit weapons research.

N. Korea preps nuclear site demolition despite US summit doubts