A 3.4 magnitude earthquake has been detected in North Korea amid fears of ANOTHER nuclear test. China’s earthquake administration has said it suspects an “explosion” caused the quake in the rogue state, but other officials has dismissed the rumbles as natural. Chinese media reported the rumble was detected on the same site as previous tests, but a South Korean weather service was quick to say it could have been a “natural” quake. An anonymous official from the South Korean agency said the analysis of seismic waves and the lack of sound waves suggested it wasn’t caused by an artificial explosion. Nuclear watchdog CTBTO later said it had detected two seismic events but added that they were probably not deliberate explosions in the isolated country. The site of the earthquake is where on September 3 North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, which it claimed saw the detonation of a thermonuclear weapon. Today’s quake was smaller than those recorded during previous tests, which have reached 6.3 magnitude. Later reports emerged that the earthquake was likely an aftershock from the hermit state’s missile test on September 3, a nuclear test ban watchdog and other experts said. Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), tweeted the quake was “unlikely Man-made! Similar to ‘collapse’ event 8.5 mins after DPRK6”, a reference to the second tremor that followed the September 3 test. “The most probable hypothesis at present is that this is a consequence of the previous… [Read full story]
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