Earthquake hits North Korea near nuclear test site

TIL Desk/World/Seoul/ A shallow 2.9-magnitude earthquake struck near North Korea’s nuclear test site before dawn today, weeks after Pyongyang’s biggest detonation, but South Korean experts said the tremor did not appear to be man-made.

The tremor hit at 01:41 AM (local time) with a depth of around five kilometres, the US Geological Survey said, with the epicentre located north of the Punggye-Ri testing site.

“This event occurred in the area of the previous North Korean nuclear tests. The event has earthquake-like characteristics, however, we cannot conclusively confirm at this time the nature (natural or human-made) of the event,” the US agency said.

But the Korea Meteorological Administration in the South said on its website that “analysis shows it was a natural quake”. “It is believed to have caused no damage,” it added.