I have the USGS location for this earthquake as being about 6-7 miles from the 2006 Korean Test, based on Google Earth.
EMSC has a slightly different location and an M 4.9.
The listed depth may not mean much because it's routinely guestimated for small, distant quakes.
I haven't been able to locate any nearby live seismograms that show it as anything more than a couple squiggles, thus can't see if it has the characteristic early big pulse of an explosion.
Anyway, a bit suspicious considering that part of North Korea is not particularly seimically active, it's very near the previous test location, and a 4.7-4.9 magnitude would be representative of a somewhat more successful test than in 2006.
GREAT catch. Thank you.
Superb catch.
Iran (claims): No nuclear, missile cooperation with N.Korea
Reuters | May 25, 2009 | Andrew Roche
Posted on 05/25/2009 7:25:59 AM PDT by VRWCTexan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2257795/posts
In a quick perusal of this and other threads on this incident I’ve been struck by the absence of comment or speculation about what seems to me to be an obvious possibility: North Korea and Iran may be working together as a team, pooling their technical expertise to accelerate Iran’s acquisition of deliverable nuclear warheads.
We already know there is a significant Iranian presence of “observers” in NK, such as in last month’s missile tests. Their mutual interests are complementary. This in no way means that Iran need diminish its domestic development programs, but it also doesn’t preclude Iran pursuing a parallel option through NK. As has been noted, some of the NK technology may offer certain advantages over what they acquired from Pakistani and other sources.
They aren’t stupid, and fully realize that Israel is being backed into a corner, and so may have concluded that time is short and that any and all options which might speed things up are worth it. Expressed more succinctly, the possibilities are:
1. Iran is heavily albeit covertly involved jointly with NK in these tests and developments, thus when NK has the bomb, so does Iran.
2. NK is doing this alone but needs cash and is developing these weapons for sale to the highest bidder. They just gave a successful demonstration for their best prospective client, Iran, thus Iran will soon have the bomb, sooner than they would have under their domestic program.
“UN nuclear test watchdog confirms North Korea blast was explosion”
Asia-Pacific News
May 29, 2009, 11:03 GMT
SNIPPET: “Vienna - The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) finally confirmed Friday in Vienna that North Korea’s announced atomic test was in fact an explosion, and not an earthquake.
Using data from 61 stations of its global seismic monitoring network, the United Nation’s nuclear test watchdog also narrowed down the epicentre of Monday’s blast to within an area of 500 square kilometres.
‘There is no doubt there is an explosion-like signal in what we detected,’ said Lassina Zerbo, who heads the CTBTO’s data centre.
It was the first such confirmation from the organization, after sources close to the CTBTO had made similar indications earlier in the week.”
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20090615_release.pdf
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
20511
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ODNI News Release No. 23-09
June 15, 2009
STATEMENT BY THE OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
ON NORTH KOREA’S DECLARED NUCLEAR TEST ON MAY 25, 2009
“The U.S. Intelligence Community assesses that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P’unggye on May 25, 2009. The explosion yield was approximately a few kilotons.
Analysis of the event continues.”
# # #