North Korea is suspected of storing nuclear weapons deep in the mountains

North Korea's recent designation of the remote mountainous province of Chagang as the Songun (army-first) Special Revolutionary Zone has raised suspicions that the province will become an important location for Pyongyang to hide nuclear weapons.TelegraphMay 24 news.

The Seoul-based Daily NK, a North Korea watcher, earlier cited a high-ranking source in Pyongyang as saying that senior officials from the North's Ministry of State Security were informed in April that Chagang would become "a strategic base for the military in the event of a modern war."

According to experts, Chagang is located on the border with China, with an area of ​​more than 16,500 km2, of which 98% is mountainous, very suitable for building underground structures to hide weapons and nuclear research facilities of the North Korean government.

A 2013 report by South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) also said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had ordered defense industrial facilities to be moved underground to avoid being monitored and attacked.

Most of Pyongyang's 1,800 weapons manufacturing facilities are located in Chagang province and other remote areas, partly or entirely underground to minimize damage in a war.

The Telegraph reported the news just hours after North Korea announced it had dismantled its Punggye-ri nuclear test site. However, Pyongyang only invited international reporters to witness the event and did not allow experts to access the site.

The demolition of the Punggye-ri test site is seen as a goodwill gesture by North Korea ahead of a summit with US President Donald Trump scheduled to take place in Singapore on June 12 to discuss efforts to denuclearize the peninsula. Mr. Trump announced on May 24 that he was withdrawing from the summit, but a day later said the meeting could still go ahead as planned.