Research results have been published indicating that North Korea's past nuclear tests conducted in Punggye-ri, Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province, could activate massive faults in the area and trigger a major earthquake.
An international joint research team, including Pusan National University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, analyzed seismometers in South Korea and near Mount Baekdu and confirmed that natural earthquakes are continuing to occur as faults are reactivated by the Punggye-ri nuclear tests.
The research team stated that it confirmed faults of at least 20 kilometers have been reactivated in the Punggye-ri region.
[Professor Kim Kwang-hee, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Pusan National University : It seems that the length of the fault is over 20 kilometers. If it is over 20 kilometers, talking in terms of earthquake magnitude, I think earthquakes of around magnitude 6.2 or 6.3 could sufficiently occur.]
In that region, no natural earthquakes had occurred from 23 BC until North Korea began its nuclear tests.
Faults that had been dormant for thousands of years were awakened by North Korea's nuclear tests and began seismic activity.
[Professor Kim Kwang-hee, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Pusan National University : Not many earthquakes occurred in that region. But it was only a few weeks after the nuclear tests ended that earthquakes began to occur in that region, and as time passed, the frequency of earthquakes increased and their magnitudes gradually grew larger, phenomena like that.]
Following the sixth nuclear test, which was the final one, until last year, 1,339 earthquakes occurred in the area, among which 90 were of magnitude 2.0 or higher.
On July 3, 2023, a magnitude 3.3 earthquake also occurred.
Mount Mantap in Punggye-ri is an area with an asymmetric structure featuring various slopes, where the structure of stress, the force applied to underground rock, is complex.
However, as six nuclear tests were carried out, the stress structure of the region was redistributed.
The sixth nuclear test, which had the largest scale, registered a magnitude of 6.3 based on the U.S. Geological Survey, and satellite images also captured the destruction of the surrounding environment of Mount Mantap after the test.
In addition, traces were found showing that the peak of the mountain sank by 0.5 meters and shifted horizontally by 3.5 meters due to the shock at the time of the nuclear test.
There are also research results showing that if a large earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or higher occurs in Punggye-ri, it could affect Mount Baekdu, located 120 kilometers to the north.
The results of this study were published in the American international academic journal Science.
Reported by Seo Dong-gyun | Produced by Lee Seyoung | Camera Filming: Kim Hak-mo | Video Editing: Park Na-young | Graphics: Kim Min-hyung, Kim Han-gil, Park Cheon-woong, Lee Jun-ho, Yang Gi-tae | Produced by SBS Digital News
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