Punggye-ri: What we know about North Korea's nuclear test site
Punggye-ri: What we know about North Korea's nuclear test site
REUTERS
Situated in mountainous terrain in the north-east, it is thought to be the North's main nuclear facility and the only active nuclear testing site in the world.
What we know about it is mainly gleaned from satellite imagery and tracking the movement of equipment at the location.
So what do we know?
The nuclear tests take place in a system of tunnels dug below Mount Mantap, near the Punggye-ri site.
North Korea watchers study the details of the excavation of these tunnels to get clues into whether the country is preparing for another nuclear test.
Ahead of the latest nuclear test on 3 September, some had pointed to satellite imagery from August which showed that the site was in a standby state - indicating readiness for a test.
Earlier in the year more tunnelling or excavation work had been detected and unidentified equipment had been placed outside one of the tunnels.
The test devices are buried deep at the end of the tunnels which ends in a hook. The tunnel gets backfilled to prevent radioactive leakage and then the device is detonated.
What is nearby?
We know more about Chinese cities and towns along the border with North Korea than we do about populations that might be closer to the test site inside North Korea.
People in several Chinese border cities reported feeling the tremors from the seismic activity at the time of the test.
School children ran out into the open in the city of Yanji, which is 10km (6.25 miles) from the border, when they felt the shaking, Global Times reported.
Very close to the site is Punngye-ri village and about 80km away is the North Korean city of Chongjin, but it is not known if these towns were evacuated or warned in any way.
Is there a real risk of radiation?
North Korea claimed that no radiation had leaked when it conducted its latest test.
China's Nuclear Safety Administration and South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission do conduct emergency monitoring for radiation immediately after the tests.
Experts at the analysis group 38North who closely track the North's nuclear activities said that radionuclides, products of the nuclear reactions that are released into the atmosphere, were detected and traced back to a previous nuclear test, in February 2013.
They also pointed to the second seismic event. Minutes after the initial seismic event was picked up by sensors when the test occurred, there was another smaller one with a magnitude of 4.6.
Experts say this could have been a tunnel collapse at the nuclear site and that such an event increases the likelihood of a radionuclide gas release.
After previous tests authorities have usually reported very small amounts of radioactive particles or gases in neighbouring countries, although there is no way to test for the amounts inside North Korea.
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