Geumchang-ri Underground Facility

The U.S. suspected Geumchang-ri of being a nuclear facility when satellite photos showed construction of pipelines and underground tunnels in 1989. The suspicion deepened when it was determined that the same military construction crew that built the Yongbyon nuclear complex was also working on the site. Based on the vast amounts of excavated soil, some believed the site was large enough to conceal a reactor and/or reprocessing facility, and that the dams and pipeline would be part of a reactor cooling system. ¹

In December 1998, Washington and Pyongyang held talks to discuss the suspected site. North Korean officials initially insisted the site was used for food storage, and that the United States would have to pay a fee of $300 million to gain access to it. But later they reached an agreement accepting food assistance instead of cash. ² U.S. officials were able to conduct an on-site inspection in May 1999. North Korea received 600,000 tons of food (worth about $300 million) through the World Food Program and other organizations subsequent to the inspection. ³

The inspection revealed nothing but vast underground tunnels, and U.S. inspectors concluded that the Geumchang-ri facility was not a nuclear-related site. ⁴ These findings were confirmed in a second inspection conducted a year later in May 2000. Critics argue that these inspections do not preclude the possibility of the site being converted to a nuclear facility in the future. ⁵

According to a defector testimony, ⁶ the Geumchang-ri underground facility is where the exhaust fumes have been ventilated from the underground uranium milling plant at Mt. Cheonma (천마산), located about 30km northwest of Geumchang-ri. ⁷