Mantapsan

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title: "Mantapsan" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mountains-of-north-korea"] description: "Mountain in North Korea famous for nuclear testing" topic_path: "general/mountains-of-north-korea" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantapsan" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Mountain in North Korea famous for nuclear testing ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain"]

Field	Value
name	Mantapsan
elevation_m	2205
location	Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province, North Korea
range	Hamgyong Mountains
coordinates
module	{{Infobox Korean name/auto
hangul	^만탑산
hanja	萬塔山
child	yes
::

| name = Mantapsan | elevation_m = 2205 | location = Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province, North Korea | range = Hamgyong Mountains | coordinates = | module = {{Infobox Korean name/auto |hangul =^만탑산 |hanja = 萬塔山 |child=yes Mantapsan (or Mount Mant'ap, ) is a mountain in the south of North Hamgyong Province in North Korea. The granite peak, which reaches an elevation of 2205 m, is part of the Hamgyong Mountains. It is located on the border between Kilju County, Myŏnggan County and Orang County.

Political prisoners were reportedly forced to dig tunnels into the southern side of the mountain, at the nuclear test site near P'unggye-ri. The horizontal tunnels are believed to be two to three meters wide and high and hundreds of meters long. This is where the detonations of the North Korean nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016 occurred.

International analysts believe that the sixth and largest explosion, as of January 2024 the last, "made the mountain bulge sideways by about 12 feet and collapse vertically by about a foot and a half", with one seismologist describing the subsequent reaction as the mountain "pancaking".

Hwasong concentration camp, at 549 km2 the largest North Korean concentration camp, is located between Mantapsan and Myŏnggan (Hwasŏng).

References

References

1. "Geographic Names: Mant'ap-san". Geographic Org.
2. "Image shows inside of N.K. nuclear weapons test facility". The Korea Herald, February 4, 2013.
3. "The Terrible Secrets of N. Koreas Mount Mantap". Chosun Ilbo, June 3, 2009.
4. "The anatomy of North Korea's nuclear test tunnels released for the first time". The Hankyoreh, February 5, 2013.
5. "North Korean Nuclear Test Preparations: An Update". US-Korea Institute at SAIS, April 27, 2012.
6. Rachel Becker. (May 10, 2018). ""How powerful was North Korea's last nuclear test? It moved a mountain"". [[The Verge]].
7. "The Hidden Gulag – Exposing Crimes against Humanity in North Korea's Vast Prison System". The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

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