A 2.4 magnitude earthquake struck near a North Korean nuclear test site on Thursday (January 11), according to South Korea’s state weather agency, which determined that the quake occurred naturally.
According to Yonhap, the quake was registered 41 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Kilju, which is home to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the tremor was reported at 7:00pm (1000 GMT) at a depth of 20 kilometres (12 miles).
Between 2006 and 2017, North Korea carried out six nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri site.
The 2017 nuclear test generated a far larger 6.3 magnitude earthquake, which was felt over the border in China.
Kilju has experienced a series of mild natural earthquakes in recent months.
According to analysts, the area around Kilju has become more seismically active as a result of North Korea’s frequent tests.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened a nuclear assault on the South and urged for a buildup of his country’s military weapons ahead of an armed conflict that he warned may “break out at any time” during Pyongyang’s year-end strategy summit.
Kim also successfully launched a surveillance satellite into orbit late last year, with what Seoul claimed was Russian assistance in exchange for weaponry deliveries for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The 2017 test provoked widespread outrage, prompting the United Nations Security Council to unanimously impose further sanctions, including limits on oil imports.
Monitoring groups calculated that the sixth nuclear test produced a yield of up to 250 kilotons, or 16 times the amount of the US bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.
Following the 2017 test, the North claimed it had detonated a hydrogen bomb “of unprecedentedly large power,” describing it as a “very significant occasion” in accomplishing the “final goal” of becoming a nuclear power.
In 2018, US intelligence agencies believed that Pyongyang had enough fissile material (the main component of nuclear bombs) for 65 warheads and was producing enough fissile material for 12 more each year.
According to a RAND Corporation report from 2021, North Korea may have more than 200 nuclear weapons and hundreds of ballistic missiles by 2027. – AFP
