South Korea's state-run geoscience institute said Friday that it has adjusted the epicenter of North Korea's suspected nuclear bomb blast following examination of more seismic data.
The Korea Institute of Geoscience & Mineral Resources (KIGAM) said the new site is in Hwaseong-gun, North Hamgyeong Province.
This area, located 41.26 degrees latitude and 129.17 degrees longitude, is roughly 51 kilometers east of Sanpyeong-ri, near Kimchaek City, which KIGAM said was where it picked up a blast on Monday. Sangpyeong-ri is located 40.81 degrees latitude and 129.10 degrees longitude.
On Monday morning Pyongyang announced that it had successfully tested its first atomic weapon in a underground test.
The new location is also about 5 kilometers away from a site in neighboring Kilju-gun that experts had said would be the likely place where a test could take place.
The Hwaseong site is close to where the U.S. Geological Survey and the Japan Meteorological Agency said a powerful detonation was detected. The Korea Meteorological Administration had said earlier that the Kilju site was where it suspected a blast had taken place.
Related to the inability of the geoscience institute to find the likely site of the test, the original location was picked 30 minutes after the shock waves were picked up Monday morning. It said more information from neighboring countries allowed analysts to get a better fix on the location. The distance and relatively weak shock wave from the blast that measured a mild 3.58 to 3.7 on the local magnitude scale made triangulation hard.
Acknowledging the change in the blast epicenter, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told lawmakers during a parliamentary audit that an area near Punggye-ri, Kilju-gun was the likely place where a test occurred.
Countries have had a hard time agreeing on the exact location of the blast, and all provided slightly different locations.
The exact site is important because the government can check for tell-tale signs of a nuclear explosion, including a crater or landslide. It can also make it easier to check for unnaturally high levels of terrestrial heat.
Seoul, Oct. 13 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea gov't adjusts suspected location of N.K. atomic bomb test |
