As the world prepares for talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea, scientists report the dictatorship may have already unleashed a worldwide nuclear threat.
“North Korea’s mountain nuclear test site has collapsed, putting China and other nearby nations at unprecedented risk of radioactive exposure, two separate groups of Chinese scientists studying the issue have confirmed,” The South China Morning Post reports.
“One group of researchers found that the most recent blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon itself,” the SCMP reports.
Observers have speculated for months the Mount Mantap site at Punggye-ri was near collapse, and there were unconfirmed reports in 2017 of a series of massive tunnel collapses killing hundreds of North Korean laborers.
Those suspicions were heightened when North Korea last week offered to end nuclear tests, raising dictator Kim Jong Un only made the offer because the site could no longer be used.
But the collapse is anything but welcome news that nuclear disaster has been averted.
In fact, it may unleash a global radioactive monster.
“The breakdown created a ‘chimney’ that could allow radioactive fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air,” the SCMP reports. “Radioactive dust could escape through holes or cracks in the damaged mountain, the scientists said.”
That radioactive dust could rise into the atmosphere and disperse over a wide area.
“So far we have not detected an abnormal increase of radioactivity levels,” Guo Qiuju, a Peking University professor and Chinese government adviser, tells the SCMP. “But we will continue to monitor the surrounding region with a large [amount] of highly sensitive equipment and analyze the data in state-of-the-art laboratories.”
AAN Staff
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