Chinese scientists have reportedly warned of a potential catastrophic collapse of North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site.

The Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post reported on Saturday that researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geology and Geophysics briefed a North Korean delegation in Beijing late last month on the threat of an implosion at the Punggye-ri nuclear facility, about 80 kilometers from China’s border.

Zhai Mingguo, a senior Chinese geologist who helped organize the meeting, reportedly said that the briefing in Beijing on September 20 covered a range of issues but North Korea’s nuclear tests topped the concerns for the Chinese government.

A researcher studying the radioactive risk from the North Korean nuclear program at Peking University reportedly said that China could no longer tolerate another land-based explosion.

The researcher said that China cannot sit and wait until the site explodes, and if the North Koreans still want to continue nuclear tests, it has to be conducted in a different location.

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