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N. Korea may have tested nuke
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea said it suspects a nuclear test caused an earthquake today in North Korea just north of a site where the country conducted two previous atomic tests. North Korea has yet to confirm whether the tremor resulted from a third nuclear test, though an analyst in Seoul said a nuclear detonation was a "high possibility."
The South Korean Defense Ministry, which raised its military alert level after the quake, said it was trying to determine whether it was a test. Nuclear blasts can create tremors but they are distinct from natural quakes.
A U.N. nuclear monitoring organization detected what it called an "unusual seismic event" in North Korea.
Kim Min-seok, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, also told reporters that North Korea informed China and the United States of its plans to conduct a nuclear test. It was not clear when Pyongyang told Beijing and Washington.
The U.S. Geological Survey detected an earthquake just north of a site where North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in 2009.
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