ICC Note: North Korea’s new nuclear test left some residents shaken as it caused apartments and private homes to collapse. North Korean source explains that people received no warning about the nuclear test and residents were petrified while fleeing from their houses as mirrors and kitchenware fell to the ground. North Hamgyong area was hit the hardest and there could be victims who were injured as their houses collapsed.
09/7/2017 North Korea; China (Radio Free Asia) – North Korea’s Sept. 3 underground test of a hydrogen bomb left residents of a county bordering China shaken, as buildings collapsed and mirrors and dishes fell from the walls and shelves of private homes, sources in the region said.
North Koreans living in remote towns now fear further damage to nearby structures, a source living in North Hamgyong province told RFA’s Korean Service.
“They feel uneasy about the possible collapse of apartment buildings due to ground-shaking from the nuclear test,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Many of the buildings in this northern area were flimsily built and may not continue to stand.”
On Sept. 4, the day after the test, North Korea’s Central Committee ordered that inspections be carried out both on recently built buildings and on old apartment blocks in the country’s major cities, the source said.
Structures in North Hamgyong’s Hoeryong and Musan cities were especially hard hit, Jiro Ishimaru—a North Korea expert working at the Osaka, Japan-based AsiaPress International—told RFA, adding, “Buildings were shaking as if in an earthquake.”
“Frightened residents fled from their houses because large mirrors and kitchenware were falling from the walls and shelves,” he said.
In some areas near Hoeryong, old residential blocks and buildings under construction completely collapsed, Ishimaru said.
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