North Korea is aiming to dismantle its nuclear test site on Thursday, a Pyongyang official told reporters on the eve of the planned dismantling.
"If the weather conditions are good tomorrow, (we) can do (the work)," local news agency Yonhap quoted the unnamed official as telling visiting South Korean journalists.
Eight media pool members from the South were only granted access to join other invited foreign journalists in the North earlier Wednesday after Pyongyang had kept them waiting for permission since last week, when the reclusive state abruptly abandoned a months-long inter-Korean dialogue process.
The downturn in bilateral ties came as North Korea accused the South, among other complaints, of aggression by conducting joint military exercises with the U.S.
Yet Pyongyang is expected to deliver its recent promise to dismantle the Punggye-ri site where it conducted all six of the nuclear tests that have incurred a series of harsh global sanctions.
Seoul's Unification Ministry sees the planned move as a "starting point" for North Korea's denuclearization.
The next step is hoped to be an unprecedented summit between the North's leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump, which is scheduled for June 12 in Singapore -- although Trump has warned the date could move after the North's recent U-turn on dialogue with the South and threat to also pull out of talks with Washington.
