The Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Geology and Geophysics hosted a delegation from N.K. in Beijing late last month. During the meeting, Chinese researchers briefed the North Koreans on the possibility of an implosion of the mountain at the Punggye-ri nuclear facility that is located about fifty miles from the N.K.-China border. One day after the last N.K. nuclear test at Punggye-ri, a Chinese nuclear scientist said that future tests at that location could “blow the top off the mountain, causing a massive collapse. Radioactive waste could bleed from cracks or holes at the site and be blown across the border.”
Two days after the meeting in Bejing, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho suddenly announced that N.K. might detonate a “most powerful” hydrogen bomb somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Another N.K. official said last Wednesday that the statement of the foreign minister should be “taken literally.” The warning issued at the Beijing meeting may be one of the reasons that N.K. has announced plans to detonate their next hydrogen test bomb over the Pacific Ocean.
The briefing in Beijing was mainly concerned with N.K. nuclear tests according to the senior Chinese geologist who organized the meeting. He said, “This is a big, sophisticated problem requiring multiple, systematic approaches. Our [meeting] is only a part of [the efforts].”
Lee Doh-sik, the director of the N.K. Geological Research Institute at the State Academy of Sciences, headed up the N.K. delegation to the meeting. One of the Chinese geologists who attended the meeting said that Lee Doh-sik was “a top government geologist in North Korea, but he is not involved in the nuclear weapons program.” According to several of the Chinese who attended the meeting, it was “reserved but friendly.” They were not able to share the content of their discussion because the meeting involved “diplomatic affairs.” The Chinese foreign ministry denied any knowledge of the meeting in Beijing.
The Chinese Geology Institute has been watching the nuclear testing in N.K. closely. It has released diagrams of it believes to be the depth and layout of the tunnels at the Punggye-ri test facility. All five of N.K. recent nuclear tests were detonated under the mountain test site. The nuclear bombs were conveyed deep into the mountain through a horizontal tunnel and then dropped down a mile deep hole.
The last nuclear test at the facility was believed to be equivalent to between one hundred and two hundred thousand tons of TNT. Following the test, there were many earthquakes and massive landslides at the test side. Many geologists outside N.K. believe that the tests have rendered the site geologically unstable. There is fear that another test at the site could risk an implosion and a release of radioactive fallout over eastern China.
A Chinese researcher at Peking University said that “China could no longer tolerate another land-based explosion. China cannot sit and wait until the site implodes. Our instruments can detect nuclear fallout when it arrives, but it will be too late by then. There will be public panic and anger at the government for not taking action. Maybe the North Koreans themselves have realized that the site cannot take another blow. If they still want to do it, they have to do it somewhere else.” Another Chinese expert says that fallout from an implosion of the mountain could spread fallout over an entire hemisphere.
