Chinese geologists report that North Korean nuclear test site collapsed

Chinese geologists report that North Korean nuclear test site collapsed

Legal Insurrection readers may recall that my September 2017 post discussing that the North Korean mountain used as a test site was poised to collapse.

A mountain in North Korea believed to have served as the site of five of the rogue regime’s nuclear tests — including Sunday’s supposed hydrogen bomb explosion — is at risk of collapsing and leaking radiation into the region, a Chinese scientist said Monday.

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province, examined the Punggye-ri site and said they “were confident” underground detonations were occurring underneath the mountain, South China Morning Post reported. Wang Naiyan, a former chairman of the China Nuclear Society and a researcher on China’s own nuclear weapons program, said another test underneath the mountain can cause an “environmental disaster” if the site caves in on itself, allowing radiation to escape and “drift across the region,” including into China.

Recall that shortly after Kim Jong Un’s brief trip to Beijing last month, Chinese officials indicated that North Korea was now fully on board with “denuclearization.”

The North Korean dictator has now joyfully crossed the border to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-for an 8.5 hour summit.

I believe all of these news items are connected. Chinese geologists are now reporting that the North Korean mountain has collapsed.

Chinese geologists claim in a new study that the mountain above North Korea’s main nuclear test site collapsed in September, rendering the area unsafe for further testing because of possible radiation leaks — a finding that may shed a different light on Kim Jong Un’s announcement that his country was ceasing its nuclear testing program.

The study carried out by scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China, in Hefei, concluded that the mountain buckled under the stress of multiple explosions caused by the release of huge amounts of heat and energy. The study’s authors said the area needs close monitoring for leaking radiation.

The data for the study were collected after North Korea’s sixth — and most powerful — nuclear test on Sept. 3. It subsequently triggered four earthquakes.

I can only imagine the conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kim exactly one month ago, as the North Korean test site now threatens China.

The University of Science and Technology of China paper, authored by Tian Dongdong, Yao Jiawen and Wen Lianxing, said the first of those earthquakes, which occurred 8 ½ minutes after the explosion, was “an onsite collapse toward the nuclear test center,” while those that followed were an “earthquake swarm” in similar locations.

“In view of the research finding that the North Korea nuclear test site at Mantapsan has collapsed, it is necessary to continue to monitor any leakage of radioactive materials that may have been caused by the collapse,” the authors said in a summary dated Monday and viewed Wednesday on the university’s website.

…A study published last month by the journal, authored by a team led by Liu Junqing at the earthquake bureau in Jilin province along the border with North Korea, found similar results of the Sept. 3 explosion. It described the aftershock that followed seconds later as most likely a “rapid destruction of an explosion-generated cracked rock chimney due to cavity collapse.”

One of the more disturbing elements of the Chinese reports is that the mountain’s “seal” has broken and there is now a potential conduit to leak radioactive particles.

One group of researchers found that the most recent blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon itself. A second group concluded that the breakdown created a “chimney” that could allow radioactive fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air.

North Korea’s nuclear tests are of special concern to Beijing, since the test site near the town of Kilju is less than 60 miles from the border with China.

Furthermore, there are reports of North Koreans contracting a “ghost disease” in the areas around the test site.

“So many people died, we began calling it ‘ghost disease,’” Lee Jeong Hwa, a defector who used to live by a nuclear testing site, told NBC News.

“We thought we were dying because we were poor and we ate badly. Now we know it was the radiation.”

While it is understandable to be concerned that the negotiations are a bid from North Korea to buy time to develop their nuclear weapons, there is a mountain of evidence that leads me to believe North Korea now has real motivation to end the Korean War rapidly.

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