More than 200 people are believed to have died when a tunnel at North Korea's main nuclear test site collapsed in September after the country's sixth and most powerful atomic test — an accident that could have far-reaching implications for the North's nuclear weapons program.
The tunnel at the Punggye-ri test site was undergoing construction around Sept. 10, a week after the Sept. 3 nuclear explosion, when an initial collapse killed about 100 workers, Japan's TV Asahi reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources in the isolated country. After rescuers were sent in, a second collapse left at least 100 more feared dead.
The Japan Times could not confirm the veracity of the report. North Korea rarely acknowledges major accidents, and any accident involving the country's ever-improving nuclear program would likely be off-limits for state-run media.