The North Korean mountain which has hosted a succession of nuclear tests appears to have suffered serious geological damage.

Analysts now believe that Mount Mantap is suffering what experts call "tired mountain syndrome."

The tests were accompanied by a series of earthquakes, the largest being a 6.3 magnitude which was felt in China.

They were carried out at the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Facility beneath the 7,200 feet mountain.

Chinese scientists fear that the mountain could collapse completely, releasing radiation from the blast.

“What we are seeing from North Korea looks like some kind of stress in the ground,” Paul Richards, a seismologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told the Washington Post.