Chinese officials have expressed fears that the mountainous terrain where Kim has already held five out of six nuclear tests could collapse.
The implosion of the mountains could then lead dangerous radiation to waft around the surrounding terrain with potentially devastating consequences.
Experts suggest that North Korea’s Mount Mantap, a 7,200-feet-peak under North Korea is suffering from “tired mountain syndrome.”
The mountain visibly shifted during the last nuclear test, an enormous blast that was recorded as a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in North Korea’s northeast, according to The Washington Post.
Following the test on September 3, the area, not known for natural seismic activity, has had three more earthquakes.
Paul G. Richards, a seismologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told The Post: “What we are seeing from North Korea looks like some kind of stress in the ground.
“In that part of the world, there were stresses in the ground, but the explosions have shaken them up.”
Now, Chinese scientists are warning that any further tests could be catastrophic to the Asian peninsula.
Since 2006, North Korea has carried out six nuclear tests. But the number of tests appears to have been ramped up since US president Donald Trump took office earlier this year.
Kim’s rogue state has a series of underground bunkers known as the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Facility.
And, intelligence analysts have been using satellites to monitor the three known entrances to Punggye-ri in a bid to see when next a test will occur.
Images captured by Airbus showed the mountain trembling during the test.
Analyst Frank V. Pabian and Jack Liu said that the blasts have caused substantial damage to the North’s tunnel network in a report that they wrote for the specialist North Korea website 38 North.
They wrote: “Based on the severity of the initial blast, the post-test tremors, and the extent of observable surface disturbances, we have to assume that there must have been substantial damage to the existing tunnel network under Mount Mantap.”
There are also fears that another blast could trigger the collapse of Mount Paektu, an active volcano on the North Korea-China border, about 80 miles from Pyungge-ri.
North Korea, however, remains defiant, Kim has not ruled out carrying out more tests.
Nam Hyok-Tsen a spokesman from the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s U.S. Studies Department, made Kim’s position clear.
He said on Friday that Pyongyang intended to continue its nuclear testing programme in the interests of self-defence and accused President Trump of playing “nuclear football.”
Nam said in Moscow: “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is constantly being convinced that developing nuclear weapons is the right choice. And we are strengthening our intention to conduct tests in order to offset the nuclear threat from the U.S.”
He added that Mr Trump had “thousands” of nuclear weapons at his disposal and that the U.S. leader was playing “nuclear football.”