U.S. Says N.Korea Blast Unlikely to Have Been Nuclear

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - A huge explosion rocked North Korea (news - web sites) three days ago but U.S. and South Korean officials said on Sunday it was unlikely to have been a nuclear weapons test despite a report the blast produced a mushroom cloud.

South Korea (news - web sites)'s Yonhap news agency said the blast on Thursday in Kimhyungjik county in Ryanggang province in the northeast near the border with China appeared much stronger than a train explosion that killed at least 170 people in April.

The New York Times reported in its Sunday editions the Bush administration had received recent intelligence reports that some experts believed could indicate North Korea was preparing to conduct its first nuclear weapons test explosion.

But in Washington, U.S. officials said there was no definitive explanation yet, although Thursday's blast did not appear to be nuclear.

A test would alter the stakes in the North's standoff with the United States over Pyongyang's atomic ambitions.

"We've got no indication that anything of the sort has happened. We believe these reports to be completely unfounded," said a State Department official who asked not to be named.

"People are pretty sure it's not a mushroom cloud and not a test of any kind," the official said.

Yonhap said a mushroom cloud up to 4 km (2.5 miles) in diameter was seen after the blast in an area near missile bases.

"There were indications last week of an incident in the area and we are still trying to confirm its exact nature," said South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Nam Dai-yeon.

North Korea is believed to be developing nuclear weapons -- the United States has said in the past it may well have one or two already -- but experts say any test would have been easily detected.

John Bellini, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) in Golden, Colorado said his organization had not detected an explosion large enough to be considered nuclear.

"If it was a nuclear bomb, that would have been detected by everybody in the world," he said. He said an explosion involving a conventional bomb would have been too small to detect.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young also played down an atomic link.

"There are some foreign media reporting such possibilities, but we are judging at the moment the explosion is unrelated to such reports," Yonhap quoted him as saying after a National Security Council meeting. Chung chairs the council, which advises President Roh Moo-hyun.

North Korea has said nothing so far about a blast, but often reports on events long after they happen.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea's big neighbor and main ally, China. A senior Chinese Communist Party delegation is in Pyongyang, as is a British junior minister, Bill Rammell of the Foreign Office.

An official at a hospital in the Chinese city of Ji'an, on the Yalu River across from North Korea, said they had not heard of any explosion or received any injured from across the border.

Thursday was the 56th anniversary of North Korea's founding. The reclusive communist state often stages extravaganzas and big events to mark important anniversaries.

The reports surfaced as South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States were seeking to persuade North Korea to return to the negotiating table to discuss its nuclear weapons ambitions. The North, which threatened at earlier talks to test an atomic bomb, has said it doubts more negotiations will help.

China was the last country to set off an above-ground nuclear test, in 1980. It carried out its last nuclear test in 1996 and has since observed a self-imposed moratorium on testing.

Yonhap carried conflicting reports about the cause of the blast, quoting one source as saying it could have been a forest fire and another as saying it may have been an explosion of at a weapons depot or factory.

"There were rumors that the explosion was much bigger than the one at Ryongchon train station and the United States is showing a big interest as the blast was seen from satellites," Yonhap quoted an unnamed source in Beijing as saying.

Other possibilities include a failed missile engine test, a high-explosives test as a precursor to a nuclear blast or an industrial accident, diplomats said.

"In the northern part of the country, there are a lot of weapons factories and underground missile bases. The rocket-fuel could have exploded in the underground base, or something," speculated Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea expert at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California.

Train wagons exploded at the Ryongchon railway station on April 22, killing 170 and injuring an estimated 1,300. The blast was believed to have been caused by a train loaded with oil and chemicals hitting a power line. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Carol Giacomo in Washington, Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo, Brian Rhoads in Beijing and You Sung-ho in Seoul)

Even if this wasn't a nuke test,that's cold comfort.They probably have atleast 6-8 nukes & a growing missile arsenal,which is probably only 12-18 months away from having deployed systems which can strike the continental US.

Kim Jong Yong has been, recently, very recently as saying,"Oh! I taught I tole Tam to wait fo affer da erection to to make Big Bang! Oww! it is fire! Dis Rain is vely vely hot today, it is merting my skeen!"

I whirr hab Tam's ass fo dis

"People are pretty sure it's not a mushroom cloud and not a test of any kind," the official said.

Cover up. Are you going to believe me, an adminstration official, or are you going to believe your lying eyes?

> Yonhap said a mushroom cloud up to 4 km (2.5 miles) in
> diameter was seen ...

Now that this has been confirmed by an official denial,
people do need to realize that almost any large explosion,
involving rapid production of heat, generate such a cloud.
It could be another "work accident" involving chemicals.

> NO SEISMIC SIGNS

Yep, nada at:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Maps/region/Asia.html

But I have to wonder if USGS is asked to not report
suspect nuke blasts. How do they know? Well, when the
"Depth set by location program" calculates a negative
depth, that's a clue :-)

> There were rumors that the explosion was much bigger
> than the one at Ryongchon train station ...

Which means that unless this was at a remote test site,
we will be hearing more, because chances are a lot of
damage and casualties resulted.

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