North Korea Says It Shut Nuclear Test Site Ahead of Planned Meeting With Trump

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Thursday that it had destroyed its only known nuclear test site, three weeks before its leader, Kim Jong-un, is scheduled to meet with President Trump.

North Korea allowed a select group of journalists from Britain, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States to watch its engineers destroy and close tunnels in its mountainous Punggye-ri test site, where the country has conducted all six of its nuclear tests. No independent outside nuclear monitors were invited to verify the dismantlement of the site.

The action came two days after Mr. Trump backed away from his demand that Mr. Kim completely abandon his nuclear arsenal without any reciprocal American concessions.

In the ceremony on Thursday, North Korea used explosives to destroy three of its four tunnels at the Punggye-ri test site, according to dispatches by reporters at the scene. The fourth tunnel had already been closed for fear of contamination after the North’s first nuclear test in 2006.

The North Koreans also blew up test-observation facilities, as well as barracks for site personnel and a metal foundry, the reports said. Two dozen international journalists were invited to witness explosives rigged inside the tunnels, and they were then escorted outside to viewing decks 500 yards away where they filmed the detonations.

North Korea invited mostly TV journalists to ensure that its action was broadcast worldwide.

Although some analysts feared the moves would be reversible, the reported demolition was the first concrete step North Korea has taken toward what Washington hopes will be a complete nuclear dismantlement under Mr. Kim.

North Korea announced last month that it would end all nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests as well as close the Punggye-ri test site. It said it no longer needed to condct such tests because the country already possesed nuclear weapons and wanted to focus on rebuilding its economy.

It is still unclear whether it will give up its nuclear arsenal. It was not even clear whether North Korea had destroyed all the tunnels at the test site on Thursday, or had done so in a way that would allow the site to be used again. No independent experts were present to view the blasts and assess the extent of the destruction.