[Anchor]
Research results indicate that North Korea's nuclear tests could trigger a major earthquake around the Punggye-ri area. The repeated nuclear tests have reportedly activated dormant faults, which could potentially impact the volcanic eruption of Mount Paektu as well.
Reporter Seo Donggyun has the details.
[Reporter]
Between 2006 and 2017, North Korea conducted six nuclear tests in Punggye-ri, Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province.
The explosions at the time generated artificial earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or higher.
Immediately following the sixth and largest nuclear test, satellite imagery captured the destruction of the surrounding terrain.
Unusual events have continued to unfold even after the cessation of the nuclear tests.
This is in front of the tunnels in Punggye-ri where North Korea's nuclear tests were conducted.
The site was built by excavating the 2,200-meter-high Mount Mantap, a location where the stress structure acting on underground bedrock was already complex due to various strata and asymmetrical slope structures.
However, the shock from North Korea's nuclear tests shattered the underground bedrock, redistributing the stress and causing the mountain peak to sink by 0.5 meters and shift horizontally by 3.5 meters.
Starting in late September 2017, following the sixth nuclear test, natural earthquakes that were previously unseen began to occur.
Normally, after a large earthquake, smaller aftershocks repeat and gradually subside. In Punggye-ri, however, more than 1,300 earthquakes occurred through August of last year, with both the frequency and magnitude increasing up to a maximum magnitude of 3.3.
A joint South Korea-China research team analyzed seismometer data near Mount Paektu and confirmed that these natural earthquakes were caused by North Korea's nuclear tests.
The shock from the nuclear tests revived and reactivated faults that had been dormant for thousands of years.
[Interview / Kim Kwang-hee, Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, Pusan National University : Based on the current earthquake activity, the length of the fault appears to be over 20 kilometers. In terms of magnitude, an earthquake of around magnitude 6.2 or 6.3 could sufficiently occur.]
Research findings also suggest that an earthquake exceeding magnitude 6.0 could impact Mount Paektu, located 120 kilometers to the north.
[Interview / Hong Tae-kyung, Professor, Department of Earth System Sciences, Yonsei University : (The earthquake) induces an increase in pressure within the magma chamber, and this pressure increase plays a role in generating bubbles inside the magma chamber, which can promote the eruption of Mount Paektu.]
The most recent eruption of Mount Paektu occurred in 1903.
These research findings, which suggest that North Korea's nuclear tests could boomerang back as a major earthquake in the Punggye-ri area, were published in the American scientific journal Science.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Seo Donggyun | Video by Kim Hak-mo and Yoon Tae-ho | Graphics by Yang Gi-tae | Producers: Kim Do-gyun and Han Seung-ho | XR: Kim Min-young, Kim Han-gil, Park Cheon-woong, and Lee Jun-ho)
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