About to fly to North Korea (to Wonsan, not Pyongyang) to observe dismantlement of Punggye-ri nuclear test site. More to follow, connectivity willing... 
Our plane
We’re at a hotel in Wonsan now and have some internet! Here’s the press centre
Wonsan airport, newly completed. Extremely quiet
The hotel corridor. The smell of fresh paint is overpowering.
The lunch banquet. Featuring fried turtle and shark fin soup, sadly.
So here’s the plan for getting to Punggye-ri, about 500km from Wonsan: at 7pm local time we’re supposed to get on a train for 12 hours overnight, then a four hour bus on dirt roads, then hike for two hours to the test site.
Update: we won’t be going to Punggye-ri tonight because of the weather. Not clear if/when we will be.
Quick write up of our experience in North Korea today news.sky.com/story/fried-tu…
Good morning - beautiful one here in Wonsan. We’re still waiting on our train to Punggye-ri.
Here's what we think the train will look like - pic taken earlier this year by @ayeshasitara for @nknewsorg
We're still being told the weather is too bad for travel. Here's the forecast. What might be delaying us is the arrival of South Korean journalists, who we thought had been uninvited. Name cards have just been placed for them in the press centre.
Latest: we've been told we will be leaving for Punggye-ri sometime this afternoon/evening. We'll get an hour's notice - I'll let you know.
The South Korean journalists have arrived in Wonsan and we’re off to Punggye-ri test site. Should take us 18 hours to get there for the closing ceremony, hopefully tomorrow. After ceremony, 18hrs back. Will have limited connectivity but keep you updated as much as possible.
In the meantime, here’s my latest Sky Views column on what the dismantlement of Punggye-ri really means news.sky.com/story/north-ko…
We're back in Wonsan after 12 hour train from Punggye-ri. We saw some spectacular demolitions, full pictures to follow. About 11pm last night we got the news about Trump cancelling summit - huge surprise to everyone on board train, North Korean and foreign.
Sorry for the delay. We were editing for the first bit. But last 3 hours the hotel was on lock down: I was sent back to my room. Not sure why. The internet went out. We weren’t allowed access to the satellite because of ‘technical reasons’ - APTN insisted there were none. Odd.
Here’s how the journey went. We left on Wednesday from Wonsan. This was our only glimpse of normal Korean life, from a moving bus. It was incredible.
The roads were empty at 5.30pm, apart from occasional crammed bus. Lots of pedestrians. We stared out and they stared back.
This was our cabin on the overnight train, for 12 hours, 400km north. All the windows were shut and we were ordered not to open them. In the dining car we were served a ten course banquet. Weird.
In the morning we arrived at Jaedok-ri, the closest station to the test site. Here’s our train and @SkyGreenfield getting in the way
The deputy director of DPRK’s Nuclear Weapons Institute. He didn’t give his name but had the rank of general. He explained what would be demolished. Three tunnels that day. The other tunnel had already been put out of action by N Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006
The northern tunnel - the site of North Korea’s five other nuclear test, including the last, massive one in September 2017. This would be the first tunnel to be ‘demolished.’
Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of this explosion as I was filming. Watch @skynews today instead! Other explosions to follow though.
This is the wreckage of the observatory near the northern tunnel. It’s just wood. We had our doubts about all of these wooden huts. They make spectacular explosions but seemed fairly empty.
Another tunnel, this one unused. The colonel who opens it told us it could be used for a nuclear detonation tomorrow if they wanted. Keen to stress the tunnel was intact, contra media reports.
A different tunnel, rigged with explosives. Almost like they’ve been put front and centre for reporters...
After that we had a break for lunch. Very relaxing, until we were told that the buildings around us were also rigged to blow. Indeed they were - you’ll see shortly
Kept guard over lunch
Here come the bangs. This is the Western tunnel - built for larger nuclear tests than September 2017. Wait for the second explosions. And good with sound.
This is where we had been eating lunch. Amazing how much explosive you need for a wooden building...
Actually, though, a couple of buildings out of seven were left standing. Here’s the second attempt
Final explosion: the third tunnel. Takes a fair chunk of hill with it.
The aftermath of that explosion, with ace cameraman Kevin Sheppard
Officials held a closing ceremony after, where they talked about transparency. Afterwards I doorstopped the DPRK colonel, asking how we could really tell the tunnels had been destroyed. He said we had seen with our own eyes the sort of explosion produced.
Kept asking questions but he didn’t give detail. You can see full exchange on @skynews. There are many questions about verification unanswered. But I think the main impact of ‘closing’ Punggy-re is in the putting these sorts of images out very publically
It’s easy enough for DPRK to make another test site. It’s also easy enough for us to tell if they test another weapon. Important thing was this as statement of intention - and the about face it would be if DPRK restarted testing.
After that, into cars to ride through military checkpoints over dirt roads, back onto train. We got the news about Trump later
And finally, woke up in Wonsan this morning. Just an incredible reporting trip.
