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Location of Punggye Village nuclear test sites

North Korea refused to accept a list of South Korean journalists to be present at the scheduled closing of the Punggye Village “northern nuclear test site” in Kilju County, North Hamgyeong Province, on May 23–25, the Ministry of Unification said on May 18.

“At North Korea’s request, the [South Korean] government attempted today to notify the North via Panmunjeom of a list of South Korean reporters to visit and cover the schedule closing of the Punggye Village nuclear test site on May 23–25, but the North did not accept our message,” a Ministry of Unification senior official said around 5 pm that day.

“There was no comment from the North on its reasons for not accepting [the list],” the official added.

At present, no signs point to the North rejecting the list of South Korean reporters because of plans to cancel its opening of the Punggye Village nuclear test site’s closure to the press.

“We have heard that discussions are still under way with the North on visiting coverage by news outlets in other countries,” a senior official said.

In a previous Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcement on May 18, North Korea said it would be allowing coverage of the test site’s closure by news outlets from five countries: South Korea, the US, China, the UK, and Russia.

On that basis, government officials and experts generally concluded the decision may be a continuation of the stance shown by Pyongyang in its unilateral postponement of high-level inter-Korean talks on May 16 over the Max Thunder joint military exercises with the US and “anti-Kim Jong-un” remarks by former North Korean minister to the UK Thae Yong-ho, and its denunciation of Seoul through a May 17 Korean Central News Agency interview with its senior representative to the talks, Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea chairman Ri Son-gwon.

It remains unclear for now whether the North plans to shut the South Korean press entirely out of the test site’s closure.

“The North didn’t really give any explanation, so all we can do for now is wait and see,” a Ministry of Unification senior official said.

“While there hasn’t yet been agreement between the two sides to have their liaison officers meet at Panmunjeom over the weekend, we will try again with submitting our list of visiting reporters, depending on how the situation goes,” the official added.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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