North Korea 'hydrogen bomb test': Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Facility inundated with joke Google reviews
'Of all the barren, post-nuclear, wastelands I have visited this was by far the best,' one commenter wrote
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Your support makes all the difference.The nuclear testing facility where North Korea claims to have detonated its first hydrogen bomb has been receiving some enthusiastic online reviews.
The Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Facility seems surprisingly easy to find on Google Maps, in Nuclear Test Road, North Hamyong.
Due to the scarcity of photographs of the secretive site, an internet user has helpfully illustrated it with a photo of Mordor, the hellish land controlled by the Dark Lord Sauron in The Lord of the Rings.
More than 60 people have “reviewed” the facility on Google, giving it an average of 3.2 stars out of five.
“Of all the barren, post-nuclear, wastelands I have visited this was by far the best,” enthused one anonymous reviewer.
“Of course Los Alamos is the classic, but nowhere else do you feel the warmth of the radioactive decay take you in its soft embrace quite as vividly as in the Hamgyong Nuclear Test Facility. However, be warned, reservations are required, as Hamgyong, is very exclusive…if you're visiting the nearby Hamgyong Concentration Camp, the Nuclear Test Facility is a must!”
But another comment complained about “some banging going on outside”, while several “visitors” remarked about a strange taste in their water in the fake reviews.
James O’Shea said the “atmosphere” was a let-down, adding: “However it is family owned, having been passed down a couple of generations, which is good reason to support them.”
But others found a bright side to the nuclear research, with Rodney Clark writing: “There is something kind of magical about this place, the whole earth just seems to glow.”
“It will blow you away,” Matthew Crowley joked, and others imagined testing their own devices.
“Tested my Coke-Mentos rocket there. People cheered at me after the test. 11/10 Would come here again,” said an anonymous user.
Internet users have been posting tongue-in-cheek comments on the nuclear facility for the past two years, with additions spiking each time a new test is carried out.
Kim Jong-un approved the latest test on Wednesday, sparking global condemnation for what the United Nations called a “profoundly destabilising” provocation in violation of international law.
While North Korean state media said the device was a miniaturised H-bomb, several analysts claimed the seismic wave recorded was too small to have come from such a weapon.
The US Geological Survey measured an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 when the device was detonated underneath the mountains of Punggye-ri.
The tremor was the same strength as a test in 2013 but slightly larger than those in 2009 and 2006.
38 North, a website run by the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, reported that new tunnels were being excavated for testing last month.
“The new tunnel adds to North Korea’s ability to conduct additional detonations at Punggye-ri over the coming years if it chooses to do so,” an analyst said.
Additional reporting by agencies
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