By Kim Young Shin

The Korean government has welcomed the demolition of a North Korean nuclear weapons test site in Punggye-ri in Gilju-gun County, Hamgyeongbuk-do Province.

“The government sees the dismantlement of the nuclear test site as the first meaningful step that puts into action the commitment to complete denuclearization, which North Korea expressed at the Inter-Korean Summit,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Noh Kyu-duk.

“The government will continue to actively exert diplomatic efforts toward complete denuclearization and the establishment of a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, as spelled out in the Panmunjeom Declaration,” Noh said.

During the Inter-Korean Summit on April 27, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission Kim Jong Un said that North Korea would close the nuclear weapons test site in May and that it would invite Korean, U.S. and other international experts and journalists to witness the process in a transparent manner.

The North invited 30 reporters from five countries -- South Korea, the U.S., the U.K., China and Russia -- to Punggye-ri on May 24 to witness the demolition. According to the joint press corps, the detonation started at 11 a.m. and lasted for 5 hours and 17 minutes. It destroyed tunnels 2, 3 and 4, the headquarters building, observatories, residences and military buildings that belonged to the site. Tunnel No. 1 is known to have been closed by North Korea after the first nuclear test in October 2006.

ysk1111@korea.kr