Seoul, Oct 13 (AP) South Korea said it detected anearthquake today near North Korea's main nuclear test site,the fourth since the country's sixth and most powerful nucleartest explosion last month.
Some experts suggested the area is now too unstable toconduct more bomb tests.
The magnitude 2.7 quake occurred about 54 kilometersnorthwest of Kilju, the town where the test site is located innortheastern North Korea, according to officials at SouthKorea's Korea Meteorological Administration. They said itwasn't man-made and didn't appear to cause any damage in thearea.
The officials, who requested anonymity citing departmentrules, said they believe the four quakes probably happenedbecause the underground nuclear test on September 3 weakenedor affected the tectonic plate structures in the area.
The region isn't one where earthquakes naturally occurand no quakes were detected after the five smaller nucleartests North Korea has conducted since 2006.
The officials declined to say how the recent quakes mighthave affected the area and the test site, where all of NorthKorea's nuclear bomb tests have taken place. But some civilianexperts said North Korea may stop using the site.
North Korea, which is accelerating its efforts to developmore powerful nuclear weapons and missiles, is unlikely towaste its limited nuclear materials by conducting tests thatare weaker than its sixth.
But a more powerful underground detonation at the currentsite could be "potentially suicidal," not only because of theweakened ground, but also because of the threat of a volcaniceruption at Mount Paektu, which is about 100 kilometers away,according to Kune Yull Suh, a professor of nuclear engineeringat Seoul National University.
Du Hyeogn Cha, a visiting scholar at Seoul's AsanInstitute for Policy Studies, previously expressed similarworries, saying he wondered whether North Korea would be ableto carry out another nuclear test in the area.
Other experts said the quakes might have been caused bylandslides or the collapsing of test structures such astunnels.
North Korea's state media haven't reported any of thefour quakes detected by South Korea and other countries.(AP)AMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.