North Korea Bomb Testing Updates: Site for Testing a Catastrophe in Waiting, Experts Claim
A North Korean mountain believed to serve as the site for the communist country's nuclear tests is on the brink of a collapse that can result to an environmental disaster in the region, including China.
According to reports, a group of researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei has examined the Punggye-ri site and have revealed that they are confident that underground detonations had been happening underneath the mountain. Wang Naiyan, former chairman of the China Nuclear Society and a researcher on China's own nuclear weapons program, opines that a disaster is waiting to happen in the event that the North Korean government decides to test another weapon there.
Wang said that another test at the site can result in an environmental disaster as, when the site collapses, radiation may escape and spread across the region.
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"We call it 'taking the roof off.' If the mountain collapses and the hole is exposed, it will let out many bad things," Wang told the South China Morning Post earlier this week.
Wang went to explain that not all mountains are suitable for bomb testing, stressing that the ideal site should have a high peak and a relatively flat slope. As North Korea does not have enough mountains, Wang suspects that the country does not have enough options on where to conduct their next bomb testing.
He also added that the chances for a mountain to sustain the explosions are also dependent on where they are placed. According to Wang, while it is much easier to make a horizontal tunnel into the heart of the mountain, placing the bombs horizontally only increases the risk of blowing a mountain's top.
"If the bombs were planted at the bottom of vertically drilled tunnels, the explosion would do less damage," he said.
North Korea claimed it detonated a hydrogen bomb last Sunday that caused magnitude 6.3 earthquake. The tremor that followed just minutes after it was caused by a cave-in or collapse, according to the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) and China's earthquake administration.
