INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
between the United States and North Korea, one of the key details is a mystery at a 7,200-foot-high point in the country's north: Mount
Mantap.This mountain hosts part of a facility, Punggye-ri, that has been the site of all six of North Korea's nuclear weapons tests
The most recent test, carried out underground on Sept
3, caused a 6.3-magnitude earthquake
Analysis of the seismic data suggested that the explosion's yield was as high as 250 kilotons, almost 17 times that of the bomb dropped on
Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced that his country would not only suspend nuclear and missile
tests, but also shut down Punggye-ri.The move was greeted warmly by President Donald Trump, who called it "big progress!" But observers
suspect that Kim's announcement wasn't as generous as it seemed
After so many damaging tests, some noted, Mount Mantap had probably exhausted its use anyway.On Wednesday, a group of Chinese scientists
said that they believe the testing site had already collapsed
According to the Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post, this team was led by Wen Lianxing, a geologist with the University of
Science and Technology of China, and had concluded that last year's test had turned the mountain into "fragile fragments."Any damage to
Mount Mantap could lead to radioactive dust escaping through cracks or holes, a big problem for North Korea and neighbors such as China, the
"It is necessary to continue monitoring possible leaks of radioactive materials caused by the collapse incident," Wen's team said in a
statement, according to the South China Morning Post.The study is due to be released in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, probably
However, his team is not the only one expressing worry about the structural integrity of Mount Mantap
In the aftermath of the September test, commercially released satellite imagery appeared to show that the mountain had shifted during the
explosion and diminished in height."What we are seeing from North Korea looks like some kind of stress in the ground," Paul G
Richards, a seismologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told The Washington Post in October
"In that part of the world, there were stresses in the ground, but the explosions have shaken them up."Mount Mantap may have "tired mountain
syndrome," experts suggested, a phrase that was applied to Soviet nuclear test sites after their repeated use fundamentally altered the rock
It is not clear whether this would mean that Punggye-ri would have to be abandoned as a testing site: The United States did not abandon
sites that suffered from earthquakes and other disturbances because of repeated testing.North Korea is a fundamentally secretive society,
and its nuclear program is among its most secretive aspects
Most analysts are forced to rely heavily on commercial satellite imagery when assessing Mount Mantap and Punggye-ri
Although their findings are important, there may be limits to what they can tell us about North Korean policy.38 North, a website that
focuses on North Korea and frequently publishes satellite imagery, wrote in an unsigned commentary on Monday that Punggye-ri was "still, as
far as we can tell, fully operational." 38 North noted that although one part of the testing site did appear to be inactive -- the North
Portal -- other parts still appeared to be functional.The following day, 38 North published an analysis by Frank Pabian, Joseph Bermudez
and Jack Liu that pointed to satellite imagery from Friday, the day after Kim's announcement, showing at least eight mining carts and a new
structure at Punggye-ri's West Portal, a site not directly under Mount Mantap and not previously associated with nuclear tests but one with
new tunneling seen as recently as early April.The authors said this could be the "first visible indication that North Korea intends to cease
further tunneling" but added that this was speculation and would require more assessment
It is not clear whether the tunneling was designed to get the area ready for more testing or why it had stopped.When Kim announced last week
that North Korea would suspend nuclear and missile tests, he said that "the northern test site has finished its mission," according to the
Korean Central News Agency
The news agency also paraphrased Kim and said the test site would be "dismantled to transparently guarantee the discontinuance of the
nuclear test."The language fits with North Korea's narrative of its suspension of testing
In November, Kim said that North Korea had "finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force" -- suggesting
that its testing had served its purpose.But pledges to dismantle Punggye-ri may be empty if the site is unusable anyway
Without outside inspections, it is also unclear whether a "dismantled" nuclear testing site could be easily restarted at a later date or
whether North Korea has alternative testing facilities lined up.(This story has not been edited by staff and is auto-generated from a
