South Korea says earthquakes highlight the area’s geological instability as Pyongyang hinted it could resume testing for the first time since 2017.
North Korea’s nuclear test site has been struck by a series of small, natural earthquakes, South Korea has said.
Seoul said it highlights the area’s geological instability as Pyongyang hinted it could resume testing for the first time since 2017.
At least four earthquakes were monitored in the region in the past five days, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) in Seoul.
The latest was a 2.5 magnitude quake on Tuesday morning, which was centered around 36km (22 miles) from the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site. A pair of 2.3 magnitude earthquakes were reported in the area on Monday and another 3.1 magnitude quake was observed on Friday.
Punggye-ri in northeast North Korea is the country’s only known nuclear testing facility.
Its last known weapons test was conducted in September 2017 when North Korea detonated its sixth and largest nuclear bomb, which it claimed was a thermonuclear weapon.
In the weeks after the explosion experts said a series of tremors and landslides near the nuclear test base was a sign the large blast had destabilized the region, which had never previously registered natural earthquakes.
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