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DPRK says successfully conducts nuclear test

(Xinhua/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-25 10:48

SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced that it had successfully conducted its second nuclear test on Monday, following a warning of retaliation it issued last month after the UN's condemnation of its rocket launch, its state media said. 

A file satellite image shows P'unggye-yok Gilju county, the site of a suspected North Korea nuclear test in 2006. [Agencies]

Related readings:  DPRK threatens nuclear, missile tests  US not to accept DPRK as nuclear-weapons state  Russia calls for calmness over Korean Peninsula nuclear issue  Japan, ROK vows to help resume nuclear talks  DPRK to restart nuclear reactor

"We have successfully conducted another underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the republic's measures to strengthen its nuclear deterrent for self-defence," the DPRK's official KCNA news agency said.

"The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control and the results of the test helped satisfactorily settle the scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology," the statement said.

DPRK warned on April 29 that it would conduct a second test, following its first in October 2006, in protest against the UN Security Council's rebuke for its April 5 rocket launch.

Lee Dong-kwan, a spokesman for the ROK president Lee Myung-bak, says that a nuclear test may have been carried out in the DPRK.

Lee Myung-bak has called an emergency security session.

The meeting will be hosted by Lee Myung-bak later in the afternoon, due to the president's early schedule to meet Qatar's Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Republic of Korea's (ROK's) Yonhap News Agency reported.

The ROK's weather agency detected an "artificial earthquake" around local time 9:54 am (0045 GMT) Monday near Gilju in the Hamkyung Province, of which the magnitude was estimated at 4.5, Yonhap said Monday.

The earthquake site seems to be around the area where the first nuclear test was conducted on October 9, 2006, the ROK news channel YTN reported.  

Map of North Korea locating the Phunggye-ri nuclear test site and other nuclear facilities.[Agencies]