Anchor: North Korea dismantled its Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Thursday as a small group of foreign journalists watched. Pyongyang claimed the demolition was a success, but no outside experts were invited to verify the process. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: 

[Sound bite: Countdown ahead of demolition sourced by pool of reporters present]

Just hours ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he was canceling his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the North followed through on its pledge to destroy its main nuclear test site. 

A group of South Korean reporters arrived at the Punggye-ri test site in the northeastern part of the country on Thursday morning along with a foreign press corps, where they were briefed on how the dismantlement would proceed. 

Then at 11 a.m., the North set off a series of explosions, beginning with an observatory and tunnel number two where the North had previously carried out five nuclear tests. 

A North Korean official emphasized that the tunnel was completely destroyed, citing that dynamite was installed in the tunnel’s walls. 

By 4:17 p.m., tunnels number three and four, where no nuclear tests had been conducted, had also been blown up. 

The North wrapped up the demolition work by completely destroying other buildings on the site, including army barracks and living facilities. 

Tunnel number one which was used to conduct the North’s first nuclear test in 2006 was not blown up as it had essentially been shut down due to radioactive contamination. 

The North claimed that with the explosions, the Punggye-ri nuclear test site had been completely demolished. 

It said foreign journalists invited to witness the demolition had confirmed that tunnels number three and four were capable of being used to carry out a nuclear test at any time and thus their eradication was an effective step toward denuclearization. 

However, reporters who observed the explosions said that from where they stood, they could only see the tunnels’ entrances being demolished, leaving the challenges of verification to experts. The journalists watched the explosions from an observatory situated on an uphill near the West Portal. 

The journalists returned to Wonsan early Friday morning and will depart for Beijing on Saturday. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News. 

[Photo : YONHAP News]