gjore
Mon, 9th October 2006, 18:53:50
North Korea test-fires atomic bomb
Pyongyang /09/10// 13:53
North Korea said it had set off a small atomic bomb underground, a move that put in motion its announcement made last week.
Seismologists confirmed on Monday they had recorded a quake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale, which corresponds to the magnitude of underground explosion.
South Korea's new agency Yonhap quotes a senior official at South Korea's Defense Ministry as saying that a blast occurred at Hwaderi in the province of North Hamgyong.
American media say it was a test-firing of a small atomic bomb, adding that shortly before test-firing China had notified Washington on Pyongyang's move.
South Korea's geological institute estimated that the test's power was equivalent to 550 tons of TNT, media said.
It was far smaller than the two nuclear bombs the United States dropped on Japan in World War II, whose magnitude ranged 21.500 tons of TNT.
Experts say N. Korean underground nuclear explosion was more like spreading than a detonation.
Pyongyang /09/10// 13:53
North Korea said it had set off a small atomic bomb underground, a move that put in motion its announcement made last week.
Seismologists confirmed on Monday they had recorded a quake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale, which corresponds to the magnitude of underground explosion.
South Korea's new agency Yonhap quotes a senior official at South Korea's Defense Ministry as saying that a blast occurred at Hwaderi in the province of North Hamgyong.
American media say it was a test-firing of a small atomic bomb, adding that shortly before test-firing China had notified Washington on Pyongyang's move.
South Korea's geological institute estimated that the test's power was equivalent to 550 tons of TNT, media said.
It was far smaller than the two nuclear bombs the United States dropped on Japan in World War II, whose magnitude ranged 21.500 tons of TNT.
Experts say N. Korean underground nuclear explosion was more like spreading than a detonation.