美国国家公共电台 NPR North Korea Demolishes Its Nuclear Test Site In A 'Huge Explosion'

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

North Korea is making a public show of moving towards denuclearization ahead of a planned summit with the U.S. The regime invited a small group of foreign reporters to witness the demolition¹ of its nuclear test site in the northeast of the country. Those journalists are now reporting that they have witnessed a huge explosion there. NPR's Elise Hu is watching all this from her base in Seoul, South Korea.

Hey, Elise.

ELISE HU, BYLINE²: Hey, there.

MARTIN: What are you hearing from the reporters who are on this trip to North Korea?

HU: A correspondent from the British broadcaster Sky News says that reporters hiked high into the mountains and watched the detonation³ from about 500 meters away from Punggye-ri. That's the site of North Korea's six underground nuclear tests that have happened, most recently in September of last year. This reporter says North Koreans counted down. And then there was a huge explosion. Dust came at them. The heat came at them. And it was extremely loud, blew an observation tower into, quote, "smithereens."

So far, though, there's no pictures or video of this event. We do know that reporters had to travel about 18 hours to get high up into the mountains. It included a journey on trains - and the train actually had blinds drawn⁴ shut, so you couldn't look out - then a four-hour bus ride, then the hike into the mountains. So once they get back into a place where there's a connection, we are expecting to see some images and video.

MARTIN: All right. So we've got the North making this big statement today; the U.S. perceiving it, I imagine, as some kind of good faith effort before the summit is supposed to happen. But it's still not for sure. Right?

HU: Right. There is another flare-up because North Korea is particularly annoyed by the talk from the Trump⁵ administration about the Libya model. This is what White House national security adviser⁶ John Bolton has suggested, referring to how Libya gave up its nascent⁷ nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. But several years afterward⁸, Libya's former leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed by mobs of rebels. President Trump himself publicly backed away from talk of a Libya model. But then this week, Vice⁹ President Pence went on Fox News and said things could end that way for Kim.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE STORY")

VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: You know, as the president made clear, you know, this will only end like the Libya model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal.

MARTHA MACCALLUM: Some people saw that as a threat.

PENCE: Well, I think it's more of a fact.

MARTIN: The vice president pointing to Libya is just strange because it's an example of a leader agreeing to give up his weapons - agreeing to the U.S. deal and still getting overthrown¹⁰ and murdered. So it's hard to understand how that would compel the North to comply.

HU: And that's an important point because North Korea's propaganda, especially last year when there was a lot more fiery¹¹ rhetoric¹² traded between the U.S. and North Korea, would often cite the Libya model as something that it was particularly irritated by and a reason for its deterrence¹³, a reason for its program and not wanting to give up its program.

MARTIN: Right.

HU: But today, you know, this flare-up is about Pence's latest comments on Fox. And the vice foreign minister of North Korea put out a statement. He said, quote, "I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing¹⁴ out from the mouth of the U.S. vice president." Then he said that if the U.S. continues to, you know, offend North Korea's goodwill¹⁵, then he's going to suggest to Kim Jong Un to reconsider the summit. And that's why, again, there's talk of - or doubt about whether Singapore will happen on June 12. But so far, planning does continue on both sides. And a press accreditation¹⁶ center has been set up online. So - so far, it's still on.

MARTIN: We'll see. NPR's Elise Hu.

Thanks so much.

HU: You bet.

1 demolition   

n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹

参考例句：

• The church has been threatened with demolition for years. 这座教堂多年来一直面临拆毀的威胁。
• The project required the total demolition of the old bridge. 该项目要求将老桥完全拆毁。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 detonation   

n.爆炸；巨响

参考例句：

• A fearful detonation burst forth on the barricade.街垒传来一阵骇人的爆炸声。
• Within a few hundreds of microseconds,detonation is complete.在几百微秒之内，爆炸便完成了。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

7 nascent   

adj.初生的，发生中的

参考例句：

• That slim book showed the Chinese intelligentsia and the nascent working class.那本小册子讲述了中国的知识界和新兴的工人阶级。
• Despite a nascent democracy movement,there's little traction for direct suffrage.尽管有过一次新生的民主运动，但几乎不会带来直接选举。

8 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

9 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

10 overthrown   

adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词

参考例句：

• The president was overthrown in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被赶下台。
• He has overthrown the basic standards of morality. 他已摒弃了基本的道德标准。

11 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

12 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

13 deterrence   

威慑，制止； 制止物，制止因素； 挽留的事物； 核威慑

参考例句：

• An extreme school of "disarmers" pronounced stable deterrence was a dangerous deception. “裁军论者”中的极端派声称，稳定的威摄是一种危险的骗局。
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。

14 gushing   

adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话

参考例句：

• blood gushing from a wound 从伤口冒出的血
• The young mother was gushing over a baby. 那位年轻的母亲正喋喋不休地和婴儿说话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

16 accreditation   

n.委派，信赖，鉴定合格

参考例句：

• a letter of accreditation 一份合格证明书
• This paper gives an overview of the Verification, Validation and Accreditation (VV&A) in High Level Architecture(HLA). 对基于高层体系结构(High Level Architecture,简称HLA)的仿真系统的校核、验证与确认(Verification, Validation and Accreditation,简称VV&A)问题进行了详细的介绍及分析。 来自互联网