A "suspicious seismic event has taken place in North Korea", according to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization.  The temblor occurred in the same far northeastern mountain range as a number of North Korean nuclear tests in the previous decade and follows threats from Pyong Yang to test a "high level" device.

U.S. Geological Survey said it had detected a magnitude 4.9 earthquake located 24 kilometers East-Northeast of Sungjibaegam in North Korea’s far northeast, where several previous nuclear tests were conducted.  Japan’s geologists put the event magnitude at 5.2.  South Korea’s Defense Ministry is attempting to learn if thi tremor was naturally-occurring or the product of a nuclear explosion.

None of this is bound to sit well in Washington, D.C., as North Korea’s National Defense Commission said on January 23rd that the United States was its prime target for a nuclear test and long-range rocket launches.