The South China Morning Post reported April 25 that the mountain site where North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests has collapsed. The Punggye-ri nuclear test site, which includes Mount Mantap, is about 400 miles northeast of Pyongyang.
“One group of researchers found that the most recent blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon itself,” the report stated. “A second group concluded that the breakdown created a “chimney” that could allow radioactive fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air.”
The story noted that the collapse might be the reason North Korea leader Kim Jong-un announced he would cease nuclear testing for the time being.
“A research team led by Wen Lianxing, a geologist with the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, concluded that the collapse occurred following the detonation last autumn of North Korea’s most powerful thermal nuclear warhead in a tunnel about 700 metres (2,296 feet) below the mountain’s peak,” the report stated.
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