North Korea releases dramatic video of huge explosion during nuclear test site 'demolition'

Eleanor Rose25 May 2018

North Korea has released a dramatic video of what it says was the demolition of a nuclear test site destroyed in a huge explosion.

The film shows clouds of smoke rising as a blast rips through three tunnels and several buildings at the test site in the mountains, deep in the north of country.

Trees are scattered as a wall of earth crumbles in a landslide triggered by the explosion as a group of foreign journalists, invited to witness the operation, look on.

The destruction of the test side on Thursday was intended as a confidence-building gesture ahead of a peace summit with the US next month.

The video shows huge clouds of smoke billowing from the site deep in the mountains
EPA

North Korea's state media called the closure of the site part of a process to build "a nuclear-free, peaceful world" and "global nuclear disarmament."

"The dismantling of the nuclear test ground conducted with high-level transparency has clearly attested once again to the proactive and peace-loving efforts of the DPRK government being made for assuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and over the world," the North's official news agency reported.

North Korea held a closing ceremony afterward with officials from its nuclear arms program in attendance.

Officials from the repressive state meanwhile claimed no radioactive materials have leaked during the demolition and that no ecological damage resulted.

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