Here is more “pretend denuclearization” from the Kim regime:
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Monday. [AFP/YONHAP]North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invited U.S. nuclear experts to verify the permanent dismantling of the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday.
The U.S. State Department reported in a statement that Kim had “invited inspectors” to visit the Punggye-ri testing site, where all of North Korea’s six underground nuclear tests took place starting from 2006, to confirm that “it has been irreversibly dismantled.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I would hope the US Secretary of State would realize that this is not denuclearization. It has long been reported that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site is largely unusable now due to the mountain beginning to collapse. For all we know the North Koreans could have their slave labor teams busy drilling caverns into another mountain right now for a new test site.
If the Kim regime was serious about confidence building measures they would ship some nuclear material out of the country. Of course that would be real denuclearization when what they want is “pretend denuclearization“.
It appears even the South Korean reporters are dubious of the closure of Punggye-ri nuclear test site:
A controlled detonation destroys the second tunnel at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site, Thursday. / Joint press corps
North Korea said it had totally destroyed all tunnels at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site, Thursday, but international reporters who witnessed the event said their lack of expertise in nuclear technology meant they couldn’t verify the complete dismantlement.
The group of reporters from South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Russia observed the demolition following a briefing by a deputy director of the North Korean Nuclear Research Institute.
“We had already discarded the first tunnel in the east, after the successful test in 2006. In the second one in the north, the country held five nuclear tests from 2009 to 2017,” the official, who refused to be named, was quoted as saying by the pool reporters.
The research institute officials repeatedly said the third and fourth tunnels, which have not been used, have remained intact despite a series of nuclear tests in the second one. “The third one is the widest. It’s always ready. The fourth was created because a bigger facility was needed,” another official said.
The first explosion at 11 a.m. destroyed the second tunnel. North Korean officials asked photographers and cameramen “Are you ready to shoot?” before a thunderous roar resonated throughout Mount Mantap following a countdown of “three, two, one.” [Korea Times]
You can read and see more pictures of this dog and pony show at the link. Interestingly the North Koreans even offered the reporters spring water to drink from the mountain to prove there is no radiation leakage, but offered no proof there was no radiation.
Here is the play-by-play of the Punggye-ri dog and pony show:
Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
North Korea destroyed its only known nuclear test site with a series of explosions over several hours on Thursday, taking an initial step toward denuclearization, according to South Korean journalists visiting the area.
The North dynamited the North Portal, also referred to as Tunnel No. 2, at Punggye-ri, a northeastern remote area, at around 11 a.m., they said in a brief pool report delivered by phone.
Two other tunnels were destroyed at 2:17 p.m., followed by the explosion of barracks, observation towers and other facilities on the ground.
The blasts ended at 4:17 p.m., the journalists said without clarifying whether Tunnel No. 1, or the East Portal, was removed as well. Among the four tunnels in the zone, the East Portal was evidently abandoned earlier, according to 38 North, a U.S.-based website.
Plumes of smoke soon covered the mountain.
Reporters and television crews from the United States, China, Russia and Britain were also invited to witness the ceremony.
They filmed the spectacle, but footage is expected to be available only after they return to Wonsan, the North’s eastern coastal city, presumably on Friday morning. [Yonhap]
As I have long said the closure of the nuclear test site is largely meaningless because if they decide they need to conduct more tests they can just dig another shaft at a time of their choosing.
It looks like the North Koreans are satisfied that they made their point to South Korea about how unhappy they are about the Ningpo 13 and have folded and allowed South Korean reporters to cover the upcoming dog and pony show at Punggye-ri:
South Korean journalists board a government plane on Wednesday at the Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, to fly to Wonsan, North Korea. [YONHAP]A group of eight South Korean journalists flew into North Korea on Wednesday afternoon after Pyongyang, at the last minute, accepted Seoul’s list of reporters to cover the dismantling of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
Eight journalists from two media outlets departed at around 12:30 p.m. from Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on a South Korean government plane and flew directly to Kalma Airport in North Korea’s eastern port city of Wonsan.
After arriving in Wonsan, they joined journalists from four other countries – China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – to board a special train to head to the site of the demolition of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site to take place on Thursday or Friday. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
After the media first made it look like the closure of North Korea’s nuclear test site was a big deal, it appears the media is now beginning to understand they are being used by the Kim regime for another purpose:
Foreign journalists will be allowed to journey deep into the mountains of North Korea this week to observe the closing of the country’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site in a much-touted display of goodwill before leader Kim Jong Un’s planned summit with President Donald Trump next month.
Expect good imagery, but not much else.
The public display of the closure of the facility on Mount Mantap will likely be heavy on spectacle and light on substance. And the media will be spending much of their time in an unrelated tourism zone that North Korea hopes will be the next big thing for its economy if Kim’s diplomatic overtures pay off in the months ahead.
For sure, the closure is a milestone, marking an end to the world’s last active underground testing site and offering some important insights into Kim’s mindset as he sets the stage for his meeting with Trump. [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link, but as I have long said the closure of the nuclear test site is largely meaningless because if they decide they need to conduct more tests they can just dig another shaft at a time of their choosing.
What is interesting though is that according to the article the media is going to be kept in Wonsan. This is because Kim plans to use the media to showcase has plan to expand South Korean tourism into Wonsan to increase foreign currency. So basically these journalists going to North Korea get to see a largely meaningless dog and pony show and then promote the Kim regime’s major foreign currency initiative.
The dismantling of the nuclear test site in North Korea is not a significant measure because it is easily reversible. The Kim regime at a time of their choosing can easily go and drill more shafts into another mountain if they want to do more nuclear testing. This is just another example of how the Kim regime tries to give up little to nothing in return for aid and the dropping of sanctions:
North Korea on Sunday stressed the importance of its dismantling the Punggye-ri nuclear test site this week and called it a “significant measure” amid reports the North has disregarded South Korea’s roster of journalists planning to cover the dismantlement.
The decommissioning of the site is “a very meaningful and significant measure” undertaken voluntarily by the North to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula based on the spirit of an agreement reached at a historic inter-Korean summit, North Korea’s propaganda website DPRK Today said.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name. The leaders of the two Koreas met on April 27 at the truce village of Panmujom on the inter-Korean border.
DPRK Today referred to the May 12 announcement by the North’s foreign ministry that it will hold a ceremony for the dismantling of the nuclear test site between Wednesday and Friday and invite journalists from China, Russia, the United States, Britain and the South to cover it.
On Saturday, another North Korean propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, carried a commentary in which the North said it does not give the slightest consideration to “a mental patient’s grumble” in the South. “The international community as well as the United States and South Korea is giving a great deal of support to the dismantlement,” it said.
In the commentaries carried by the two propaganda websites, the North lambasted conservative forces in the South, including the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, for underestimating the planned closure of the site. Pyongyang apparently aims to stress the importance of the dismantlement by raising the issue again.
South Korea’s unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said Friday the North had not responded to the list of South Korean journalists chosen to attend the ceremony. [Yonhap]
Kim Jong-un is taking a play out of his father’s denuclearization playbook with his announcement that he will seal the shafts at this nuclear test site:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has promised to dismantle a “northern” nuclear test site in May in full view of experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States, Cheong Wa Dae said on Sunday.
Kim made the promise during talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday, the president’s top press secretary Yoon Young-chan said.
Kim said the site is still “usable” and “there are two more shafts that are bigger than the one (to be dismantled) which are sturdy,” according to Yoon.
Kim did not specify the location of the site to be dismantled, but given the North’s past announcement, it is believed to be in Gilju, North Hamgyong Province. On April 21, Kim declared the shutdown of the Gilju site, along with a freeze on missile and nuclear tests. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but when I read this I though immediately back to 2008 when Kim Jong-il blew up a cooling tower at it Yongbyon nuclear plant:
In a gesture demonstrating its commitment to halt its nuclear weapons program, North Korea blew up the most prominent symbol of its plutonium production Friday.
The 60 foot, or 18meter, cooling tower at North Korea’s main nuclear power plant collapsed in a heap of shattered concrete and twisted steel, filmed by international and regional television broadcasters invited to witness the event.
The destruction of the tower, the most visible element of the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, about 100 kilometers, or 60 miles north of Pyongyang, bore witness to the incremental progress that has been made in U.S.-led multilateral efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. [NY Times, June 27, 2008]
The North Koreans eventually rebuilt the cooling tower and reopened the Yongbyon nuclear facility in 2013. As little as two months ago satellite imagery showed the plant producing plutonium. Much like with the destruction of the cooling tower, the sealing of shafts at their Punggye-ri nuclear test site is easily reversible at a time of the Kim regime’s choosing. However, when this event happens most of the international media and Korean leftists will once again seize on the dramatic images this is sure to bring as evidence that the Kim regime really means to denuclearize this time.
I will know Kim Jong-un means to denuclearize when the entire Yongbyon plant is demolished and his nuclear weapons and material are removed from the country. Until this happens everyone is just continuing to play along with this great facade which the closure of the nuclear test site will be another part of.
Recent commercial satellite imagery shows little activity at the #DPRK's Punggye-ri facility one day before Kim Jong Un announced a shutdown of the sitehttps://t.co/0a1YzVK8AH
Newsweek seems to be seriously stretching what this means if they think suspending tunneling at Punggye-ri means the Kim regime is serious about giving up nuclear weapons:
WILL NORTH KOREA GIVE UP NUCLEAR WEAPONS? THESE PHOTOS SUGGEST KIM JONG UN MAY BE SERIOUS
North Korea has suspended activity at its main nuclear site, according to recent satellite imagery and expert analysis that appeared to support Pyongyang’s offers to solve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula diplomatically.
President Donald Trump’s decision to accept an unprecedented invitation to meet North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un came after South Korean officials assured the Republican leader that Kim was willing to denuclearize in exchange for peace. As suspicions arose as to what North Korea’s true intentions were, leading analysts Frank V. Pabian, Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. and Jack Liu found a major slowdown at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in a report posted Friday to 38 North, a project of the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. [Newsweek]
