NORTH Korea may carry out more nuclear tests unless the United States ends its "intimidation", a senior official at Pyongyang's embassy in Moscow has been reported as saying.
The official was quoted by Russia's the ITAR-TASS news agency that North Korea cannot rule out “the possibility of carrying out new nuclear tests", adding that this would take place “if the United States and its allies continue their policy of intimidation of North Korea".
North Korea said it had tested a second nuclear bomb today, a claim borne out by unusual seismic activity beneath a mountainside in the country's remote northeast. It also reportedly test-fired three short-range missiles.
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An "earthquake" provisionally measured at 4.7 on the Richter scale was recorded at 9.54am Korean time in North Hamgyong province - the same area where North Korea exploded a small nuclear bomb in October 2006.
The explosion appears to have been more powerful than the 2006 test, which measured 3.6 on the scale and was estimated to have yielded about 0.5 kilotonnes (equivalent to 500 tonnes of TNT).
