Mountain collapses above North Korea's main nuclear testing site

© DigitalGlobeThe findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong-un’s recent announcement.

The mountain above North Korea's main nuclear test site has collapsed.

Research by Chinese geologists revealed this week that the peak had crumbled.

It means that the site is unsafe for further testing and requires monitoring for any leaking radiation.

The findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong-un's recent announcement.

He said his country was ceasing its testing programme ahead of planned summit meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump.

• Bombshell announcement: Kim Jong Un invites Trump to meet and discuss 'denuclearization of Korean peninsula' - Trump says 'Yes, we can!'
• Kim Jong-un shuts down nuclear missile testing as Pyongyang outlines plans for the future
• China detects 'natural' N. Korea earthquake - fears of nuclear test unfounded
• Nuclear test site tunnel collapse kills 200 North Koreans
• USGS: 2.9-magnitude earthquake detected near North Korean nuclear test site

Q: Can you comment on the recent statements by Mr Vladimir Uglev claiming to be a "Novichok" inventor and saying he is sure that A-234 was used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal?

A: Yesterday we learned from the BBC that the self-proclaimed inventor of the so-called "Novichok" Mr Vladimir Uglev was sure that the Skripals had been poisoned with A-234. He comes to this conclusion "from all the spectrum data [he] was sent recently".

This is quite an extraordinary statement. It essentially means that a private citizen has been provided with the information that the Russian Side has not been able to obtain from the British authorities for weeks.

By the way, earlier, statements based on access to "intelligence data" were made by Mr Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the former commanding officer of the UK's chemical regiment.

Of course, these allegations can not be verified. But if we are to believe them, it looks like the British authorities share highly confidential data with private individuals. This is another gross violation of the OPCW rules. We have asked the FCO to confirm or deny this, and to provide us access to the files that these gentlemen refer to.

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 72, a former police officer, was charged with eight counts of murder.

Throughout Wednesday, authorities scoured his beige, single-story home in Citrus Heights, removing two cars, a boat and a motorcycle from the garage.

Four initial charges are for the slaying of two married couples - Brian and Kate Maggiore, who were killed in Rancho Cordova in 1978; and Lyman and Charlene Smith, who were killed in Ventura in 1980.

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said the task force had been conducting surveillance on DeAngelo and secretly retrieved his DNA from a discarded item, such as a soda can. The DNA matched the samples left by the killer. Authorities would not say how they initially came to see him as a potential suspect.

Sean Ragan, special agent in charge of the FBI's Sacramento office, said DeAngelo was a police officer decades ago, first in Exeter, Calif., near Visalia, and then in Auburn, near Sacramento. "The time frame of the crimes supports that the suspect was a police officer when he committed some of these crimes," Ragan said.

A front page article in the Auburn Journal dated August 29, 1979, says DeAngelo was dismissed from his position as an Auburn policeman for stealing a can of dog repellent and a hammer from a Sacramento drugstore.