North Korea nuke test may be a partial success, experts

Washington, Oct 10 (UNI) The North Korean nuclear test appears to have been a nuclear detonation, fairly small by traditional standards, and possibly a failure or a partial success, the New York Times quoted federal and private analysts as saying.

Throughout history, the first detonations of aspiring nuclear powers have tended to pack the destructive power of 10 to 60 kilotons of conventional high explosives.

But the strength of the North Korean test appears to have been a small fraction of that around a kiloton or less, according to scientists monitoring the global arrays of seismometers that detect faint trembles in the earth from distant blasts.

''It's pretty remarkable that such a small explosion was promptly apparent on seismometers all over the world,'' the daily quoted Mr Paul Richards, seismologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as saying.

''The detection of this was really good. You can't hide these kinds of things, even very small tests,'' he said.

The daily quoted a senior George W Bush administration official saying he had learned through Asian contacts that the North Koreans had expected the detonation to have a force of about four kilotons.

Because classified information was involved and there was lingering uncertainty, he would not let his name be used.

The United States Geological Survey said it had detected a tremor on the Korean Peninsula of 4.2 magnitude, which translates into an explosive force of roughly 1,000 tons.

The agency listed 20 seismic stations as having initially picked up the blast's shockwave, including nearby ones in China, Japan and South Korea as well as distant ones in Ukraine, Australia, Nevada and Wyoming.

The daily quoted intelligence officials here, saying, they were still in the early stages of evaluating the North Korean blast.

But one of the officials said analysts had estimated its force at less than a kiloton.

''We have assessed that the explosion in North Korea was a sub-kiloton explosion,'' said the intelligence official, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified information.

It will probably take several days to determine with confidence if the explosion was in fact nuclear, the official said, adding, so far, sensors had not detected radiation leaking from the blast site.

But federal and private experts said it seemed unlikely that the North Koreans had faked an underground nuclear blast with a large pile of conventional high explosives.

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