Tests show no radiation after Korean ‘nuke’

RESULTS from an initial air sampling after North Korea’s announced nuclear test showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a US government intelligence official said last night.

Meanwhile, North Korea has said it was ready to talk as the United Nations Security Council reached a tentative deal on a package of sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its declared nuclear test.

North Korean officials “in the near future... want to resolve problems connected to denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula through negotiations,” the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Alexeyev as saying in the North Korean capital yesterday.

The UNSC resolution is set to be voted on this morning.

The results of the air test do not necessarily mean the North Korean blast was not a nuclear explosion, the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The US government remains uncertain of the nature of the underground explosion, although the air sampling tends to reinforce earlier doubts about whether the test blast was entirely successful, officials said.

The air sample was taken Tuesday by a specialised aircraft, the WC-135, flying from Kadena air base in Okinawa, Japan. It apparently took the sample over the Sea of Japan.

In Beijing, a government official said that Chinese monitoring also has found no evidence of airborne radiation from North Korea’s claimed nuclear test. The official with the State Environmental Protection Administration said China has been monitoring air samples since the test-explosion Monday.

“We have conducted air monitoring and found no radiation in the air over Chinese territory so far,” said the official.

Word of the test results came as the US continued its diplomatic offensive at the UN and with Pyongyang’s neighbours, aimed at forcing North Korea to drop its efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Members of the UNSC yesterday agreed on the wording of a resolution that would clamp sanctions on the communist country. The draft would authorise non-military sanctions against the North, and it says that any further action the council might want to take would require another UN resolution.