12 Feb 2013 09:51

Russian military studying North Korean possible nuclear test info

MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax-AVN) - Specialists of the Russian Defense Ministry are studying information about a possible nuclear test conducted by North Korea, a ministry representative told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.

"Specialists are studying information obtained by the Special-Purpose Control Service. Conclusions will be drawn later," he said.

Specialists in other countries are also working to establish if the tremor that occurred at 11:57 local time (6:57 a.m. Moscow time) on Tuesday was an earthquake or a nuclear explosion.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization issued a statement in this respect saying that the CTBTO monitoring stations picked up evidence of an unusual seismic event in North Korea on February 12.

"The event shows explosion-like characteristics and its location is roughly congruent with the 2006 and 2009 DPRK nuclear tests," CTBTO Executive Secretary Tibor Toth said.