A look at the DPRK's Punggye-ri nuclear test site

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02:01

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will be destroying all of the tunnels at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in front of invited foreign media. Located in the country's North Hamgyong Province which borders China, the Punggye-ri test site is where Pyongyang conducted all six nuclear tests.

The test site is thought to be the DPRK's main nuclear facility and the only active nuclear testing site in the world.

Hidden deep inside the mountains, it is said to be an ideal venue to withstand the huge forces unleashed by nuclear blasts.

CGTN Infographic

Earlier this month, the DPRK announced that it plans to blow up the site's tunnels between May 23 and 25.

The site's location became known in 2006 when the DPRK conducted its first nuclear test under Kim's late father, Kim Jong Il. Activities have been closely watched through satellite imagery since then.

This image is from the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and was featured in the article, Continued Unidentified Activity at Site of North Korea's (DPRK) Last Nuclear Test, published on 38 North on August 11, 2016. /VCG Photo

Tunnels can be seen entering the site from different directions. The first test was staged in the eastern tunnel, the second and third in the western tunnel and the remainder in the northern tunnel, according to intelligence authorities.

The tests demonstrated the country's rapid progress in its nuclear program. The DPRK's first nuclear test produced an estimated yield of only about one kiloton. And the sixth test produced as much as 250 kilotons, when Pyongyang claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. That explosion was 16 times more powerful than the US atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

1073km