While the country was claiming that it could reach anywhere in the US with its weaponry, they were in the midst of a related disaster.
North Korea had been testing their nuclear bombs capabilities by detonating them inside a mountain.
Mount Manjap is said to have had its shape completely changed following the tests, which had also caused some severe damage to the already existing tunnels.
Those tunnels were then set to be expanded, for further tests, when the collapse took place.
According to
The Telegraph (who translates from Japan’s Asahi TV network), there were two separate collapses within the same test tunnel:
Sources in North Korea told the news channel that a tunnel being excavated by around 100 workers at the Punggye-ri test site collapsed earlier this month.
An additional 100 labourers sent to rescue their colleagues were reportedly killed when the tunnel suffered a second collapse.
The Chinese government have apparently warned that another nuclear test there could "blow the top off the mountain" and leak radioactive material into the surrounding areas.
The incident is said to have happened on Tuesday 10 October, but due to North Korea's infamous security against any negative news within the country being leaked externally, it has taken this long for sources to get the information to Japanese news outlets.
North Korea's deputy UN ambassador had recently issued a warning to the US about the possibility of a nuclear war, claiming that the situation on the Korean Peninsula "has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment."
Ambassador, Kim In-ryong, was speaking to the UN General Assembly committee on Monday and stated that North Korea is the only country that has been subjected to an extreme and direct nuclear threat from the US in over four decades.
