A 5.1 magnitude earthquake was detected in North Korea Wednesday (Jan 6) near a known nuclear test site in the country.

• Updated 06 Jan 2016 11:13

The location of a 5.1 magnitude quake in North Korea. (Source: USGS)

SEOUL: North Korea appeared to have carried out a nuclear test Wednesday — its fourth — with seismologists detecting a 5.1 magnitude tremor next to its main atomic test site in the northeast of the country.

The website of the China Earthquake Network Centre described the seismic activity, which came just two days before North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s birthday, as a “suspected explosion”.

North Korea state radio said Pyongyang would make a “special announcement” at 12:00 Pyongyang time (0330 GMT). It gave no details of the content.

The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the quake — detected at 10:00 am Pyongyang time (0130 GMT) — was in the northeast of the country, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Kilju city, placing it right next to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

Any confirmed test will trigger widespread international condemnation of North Korea, which has already conducted three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 — all at the Punggye-ri site.

It would certainly result in a tightening of international sanctions imposed after the North’s previous nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

In Seoul, the presidential Blue House called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, as officials scrambled to confirm the precise nature of the tremor.

“Further analysis is necessary to determine whether it is an artificial or a natural quake,” a spokesman for the Korea Meteorological Administration told AFP.

“We suspect a man-made earthquake and are analysing the scale and epicentre of the quake with the geoscience and mineral resource institute of South Korea.”

Researchers at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said last month that recent satellite images showed North Korea was excavating a new tunnel at Punggye-ri.

“While there are no indications that a nuclear test is imminent, the new tunnel adds to North Korea’s ability to conduct additional detonations over the coming years if it chooses to do so,” they said at the time.

A nuclear test would be seen as major slap in the face to the North’s chief ally China and extinguish any chance of a resumption of six-country talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme that Beijing has been pushing for.

Japan’s top government spokesman said it may have been a nuclear test, based on past experience.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters the government is gathering and analysing information on the incident.

He also said the government has convened meetings of a task force on North Korea.

The U.S. Defense Department was also “looking into reports of a possible seismic event near North Korea’s nuclear facilities”.

This combination of GeoEye Satellite Images captured January 4, 2013 (L) and January 23, 2013 shows the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility.(GeoEye Satellite Image/AFP)

After its last nuclear test in 2013, the North restarted a plutonium reactor that it had shut down at its Yongbyon complex in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord.

It follows South Korea media reports that North Korea appeared to have carried out a test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile last month.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency cited an unnamed South Korean government official as saying Pyongyang appeared to have conducted an ejection test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in December, following a reported failure of such a test in November.

A South Korean military official told Reuters that North Korea continued to developed submarine-launched missile capability but expects it will take a substantial period of time for it to be able to successfully deploy such a weapon.

– CNA/AFP/Reuters/jb

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/north-korea-nuclear-test/2402490.html?

Categories: Escalation / Destabilization Conflict