A foreign reporter at the security checkpoint at Kalma Airport in Wonsan, North Korea, Tuesday. / Captured from Xinhua News Twitter

Foreign reporters at Kalma Airport in Wonsan, North Korea, Tuesday. / Captured from Xinhua News Twitter

Foreign reporters at Kalma Airport in Wonsan, North Korea, Tuesday. / Captured from Xinhua News Twitter

Foreign reporters line up at a check-in counter at Beijing Capital International Airport, Tuesday. They are on their way to the Punggye-ri nuclear site to cover its dismantlement, scheduled for sometime between Wednesday and Friday. South Korean reporters were unable to join the trip because the North denied their entry in protest at an ongoing Seoul-Washington military drill and an anti-Pyongyang speech in Seoul by a high-ranking North Korean defector. / Joint Press Corps

A North Korean, center, who introduced himself as a reporter at Rodong Sinmun, talks with reporters at Beijing Capital International Airport. / Joint Press Corps

About two dozen journalists from Western and Chinese news organizations arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to witness the closure of its nuclear test site, an indication that the shutdown will go ahead amid renewed diplomatic uncertainty.

North Korea invited a handful of media to witness the dismantling of the Punggye-ri site this week but not technical experts, even though the United States has called for "a permanent and irreversible closure that can be inspected and fully accounted for."

Isolated North Korea's offer to scrap the test site was seen as a key concession in months of easing tension between Pyongyang and its long-time bitter rivals, South Korea and the United States.

However, the improving diplomatic environment has hit a rocky patch, with North Korea threatening last week to pull out of a planned June 12 summit in Singapore between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. South Korean president Moon Jae-in was scheduled to meet Trump in Washington later on Tuesday, as U.S. officials try to figure out whether North Korea, which has pursued nuclear and missile programmes in defiance of U.N. sanctions, is serious about negotiating a deal on denuclearisation.

Journalists from the Associated Press, CNN, CBS, Russia Today and Chinese state media outlets were among those seen checking in at Beijing Capital International Airport to catch the Air Koryo flight to North Korea. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the group had arrived at the airport in the east coast city of Wonsan.

The Rodong Sinmun reporter scribbles down his personal details. / Yonhap

Numerous other news organisations, including Reuters, had also sought to cover the shutdown of the North's nuclear test site but were denied invitations. South Korea expressed regret that its journalists had not been included after earlier being invited.

"Nonetheless, the government pays due attention to the fact that the North's pledge to dismantle the Punggyeri nuclear test site, an initial measure for denuclearisation, is proceeding as planned, and expects that such action to lead to the successful hosting of the North Korea-U.S. summit," South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement.

Last month, Moon and Kim held a historic summit at the Demilitarised Zone separating the two countries. North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea has rejected unilateral disarmament and given no indication that it is willing to go beyond statements of broad support for the concept of universal denuclearisation.

It has said in previous, failed talks that it could consider giving up its arsenal if the United States provides security guarantees by removing its 28,500 troops from South Korea and withdraws its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from South Korea and neighbouring Japan. (REUTERS)

Foreign reporters move through the airport to board a North Korean flight bound for Wonsan. From Wonsan, they will travel to the test site by bus. / Joint Press Corps

CNN's Tokyo bureau correspondent Will Ripley speaks to reporters at Beijing Capital International Airport. /Joint Press Corps

South Korean reporters stand outside the closed gates of the North Korean embassy in Beijing, Monday. / Yonhap

North Korea rejects S. Korean press coverage of Punggye-ri 2018-05-22 16:59  |  Politics

Korean and Japanese press interview South Korean reporters who were denied visas for the Punggye-ri nuclear site trip. / Yonhap