A shallow 3 .5 - magnitude earthquake hit
North Korea near the country ’s nuclear
test site Saturday, US seismologists said ,
in what China’ s seismic service said was
a “ suspected explosion ” , but Seoul deemed
a “ natural earthquake ” .
The earthquake came after days of
increasingly bellicose rhetoric between
US President Donald Trump and North
Korean leader Kim Jong -Un ’ s regime over
Pyongyang ’s nuclear ambitions raised
international alarm.
The United States Geological Survey
( USGS) said the quake struck around 20
kilometres (12 miles) away from the
North ’s nuclear test site, where earlier
this month it detonated its sixth and
largest device , which it claimed to be a
hydrogen bomb capable of being launched
onto a missile .
“ This event occurred in the area of the
previous North Korean Nuclear tests . We
cannot conclusively confirm at this time
the nature (natural or human-made ) of
the event . The depth is poorly constrained
and has been held to 5 km by the
seismologist, ” USGS said in a statement .
Regional experts differed on their analysis
of the tremor, with China ’s China
Earthquake Network Centre (CENC )
service calling it a “ suspected explosion ” ,
while Seoul ’s Korea Meteorological
Agency (KMA) judged it a “natural
quake ”.
“ There is no possibility that this could be
an artificial quake ,” Yonhap news agency
quoted a KMA official as saying .
The North’ s last test, on September 3 , was
the country ’s most powerful detonation ,
triggering a much stronger 6 .3 - magnitude
quake that was felt across the border in
China .
A second tremor soon after that test was
possibly caused by a “ cave -in” , CENC said
at the time .
The move prompted global condemnation ,
leading the UN Security Council to
unanimously adopt new sanctions that
include restrictions on oil shipments.
War of words
This week marked a new level of
acrimony in a blistering war of words
between Kim and Trump , with the US
leader using his maiden speech at the
United Nations to warn that Washington
would “totally destroy” the North if the
US or its allies were threatened .
The North , which says it needs nuclear
weapons to protect itself against the
threat of invasion by a hostile US ,
responded on Friday with a rare personal
rebuke from Kim , who called Trump
“ mentally deranged” and a “ dotard” and
threatened the “highest level of hard - line
countermeasure in history ”.
Washington announced tougher
restrictions Friday aimed at curbing
North Korea ’s nuclear and ballistic
missile programme, building on tough
new United Nations sanctions aimed at
choking Pyongyang of cash .
Russia and China have both appealed for
an end to the escalating rhetoric between
Washington and Pyongyang .
But on the fringes of the UN meeting this
week, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri
Yong- ho upped the tensions further ,
telling reporters Pyongyang might now
consider detonating a hydrogen bomb
outside its territory.
Monitoring groups estimate that the
nuclear test conducted in North Korea
earlier this month had a yield of 250
kilotons , which is 16 times the size of the
US bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in
1945 .
Hydrogen bombs , or H-bombs , are
thermonuclear weapons far more
powerful than ordinary fission- based
atomic bombs , and use a nuclear blast to
generate the intense temperatures
required for fusion to take place.
Source: punchng
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