Earthquake detected in North Korea: China suspects 'explosion', S Korea says natural quake took place

Did North Korea test another nuclear bomb?The question is up in the air after an earthquake was detected to have struck in North Korea today.

However, initial assessment of the quake differed widely, with the Chinese earthquake administration saying that it had detected a magnitude 3.4 earthquake in North Korea that was a "suspected explosion".

The administration said in a statement on its website that the quake, which occurred around 0830 GMT, was recorded a depth of zero kilometres.

The Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, said on Twitter that earthquake was detected "at roughly the same site as [the] shallow quake on Sept. 3 that was caused by [a] nuclear test".

Magnitude-3.4 zero-depth quake detected in North Korea, at roughly the same site as shallow quake on Sept. 3 that was caused by nuclear test pic.twitter.com/dkMhaipJv2

- China Xinhua News (@XHNews) September 23, 2017

Previous quakes from North Korea have indicated nuclear tests by the reclusive state, the most recent earlier this month. Incidentally, today's quake was centred near North Korea's nuclear test site.

South Korea's weather agency, however, offered a different view. The agency said that while it was analyzing the nature of the quake, its initial view was that it was a natural earthquake.

(With inputs from Reuters; More details awaited)