North Korea's Punggye-Ri Nuclear Site Set For Dismantling, Foreign Journalists Invited

Kim Jong Un vowed to dismantle North Korea’s only nuclear site at Punggye-ri this week during his meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday. The two leaders promised to pursue peace and work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea accepting denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was the ultimate aim of the summit.

“Once we start talking, the United States will know that I am not a person to launch nuclear weapons at South Korea, the Pacific or the United States,” Moon's spokesman Yoon Young-chan quoted Kim as saying.

“If we maintain frequent meetings and build trust with the United States and receive promises for an end to the war and a non-aggression treaty, then why would be need to live in difficulty by keeping our nuclear weapons?” he added.

Kim also reacted to claims that North Korea would be closing down only the northernmost test tunnel, which, according to some analysts, was too unstable to conduct underground detonations. While denying that only damaged goods would be cleared out, Kim added Punnggye-ri has two new tunnels, which are larger than the other testing facilities.

The North Korean leader also announced during a gathering of senior party leaders just ahead of his summit with South Korean president North Korea has suspended all tests of nuclear devices and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

But experts claim dismantling nuclear site is like destroying evidence.

"It's kind of like a murder scene where they let people like you and me trample around in it, it's the same concept,” Bechtol, a professor of political science at Angelo State University told CNN. “The North Koreans have conducted all these tests here, every single weapons test, so if they let experts in to look at these tunnels before they let anyone else in that would be potentially for us an intelligence boon.”

Cheryl Rofer, a chemist who spent 35 years working on environmental cleanups said, "If I were going I would want to bring some capability of taking samples, and I would also want to bring a geologist with me. I'd want to have a radiation counter, I would want to go into the tunnel to see if parts of it have caved in the back, and I would want to take radiation measurements."

The closure will take place in front of two dozen handpicked foreign journalists from Britain, China, South Korea, Russia and the United States. It was unclear why Japanese journalists were not invited.

The journalists have already flown from Beijing to witness the dismantling. North Korea could seek to charge $10,000 each from the reporters for a visa to cover planned dismantlement live. The event will be held between Wednesday and Friday this week, depending on the weather.

The dismantling process will involve exploding all the tunnels and completely blocking tunnel entrances. It will also involve removing all observation and research facilities and taking down structures used for guarding the site. Satellite imagery suggests that some of the work has already begun.