North Korea nuclear test claim after 'unusual seismic event'

SEOUL, South Korea // North Korea is believed to have conducted a widely anticipated nuclear test, following an earthquake that monitoring agencies around the globe said appeared to be unnatural.

The South Korean Defence Ministry, which raised its military alert level after the quake, said it was trying to determine whether it was a test. Nuclear blasts can create tremors but they are distinct from those caused by natural earthquakes.

A world nuclear test monitoring organisation detected what it called an "unusual seismic event" in North Korea.

"The event shows clear explosion-like characteristics and its location is roughly congruent with the 2006 and 2009 DPRK nuclear tests," said Tibor Tóth, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation. The DPRK refers to North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"If confirmed as a nuclear test, this act would constitute a clear threat to international peace and security, and challenges efforts made to strengthen global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, in particular by ending nuclear testing," Mr Tóth said.

Kim Min-seok, a South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman, told reporters that North Korea informed China and the United States of its plans to conduct a nuclear test. It was not clear when Pyongyang told Beijing and Washington.

The US Geological Survey as well as earthquake monitoring stations in South Korea detected an earthquake just north of a site where North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in 2009, according to the government-funded Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources.

"There is a high possibility that North Korea has conducted a nuclear test," said Chi Heoncheol, an earthquake specialist at the institute. Mr Chi said a magnitude 3.9 magnitude earthquake and a magnitude 4.5 earthquake were detected in the North's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

South Korean, US and Japanese seismic monitoring agencies put the magnitude of the quake at 4.7, 4.9 and 5.2 respectively.

"We think it is possible it came about as a result of a nuclear test by North Korea from looking at past cases," a Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference, noting that they were still gathering information.

"A natural earthquake normally starts with a smaller tremor followed by a larger one. This quake's strength was the same throughout," according to Yosuke Igarashi, an official at the Japan Meteorological Agency. He declined to elaborate on the length of the quake or other details, saying the agency was studying the data.

The United States and its allies have been on edge since North Korea said last month it will conduct its third nuclear test to protest toughened sanctions over a December rocket launch that the UN called a cover for a banned missile test.

North Korea's politburo vowed to continue firing "powerful long-range rockets," but a statement by state media made no mention of a nuclear test.

North Korea's National Defence Commission said on January 23 that the US was its prime target for a nuclear test and long-range rocket launches. North Korea accuses Washington of leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its December rocket launch.

Last October, a spokesman from the commission told state media the country had built a missile capable of striking the US, but did not provide further details. A missile featured in an April 2012 military parade appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, but its authenticity has not been verified by foreign experts.