Study: North Korea's 2017 nuclear test may have triggered more than 1,300 earthquakes

The research team from South Korea's Pusan National University and China's Chengdu University of Technology analyzed seismic wave data from the past 17 years, starting in 2008. It detected a sudden rise in earthquakes around Mount Mantap, where North Korea detonated six nuclear devices in underground tunnels from 2006 to 2017.

During the 11-year period after the North's first nuclear test in 2006, researchers detected about 60 earthquakes. Seismic activity appeared to occur more frequently around 2013, following the North's third nuclear test.

The most pronounced increase came after North Korea's largest and final nuclear test in 2017. A total of 1,330 earthquakes followed that test, concentrated on a fault zone spanning about 24 kilometers wide, the researchers found. Earthquakes after previous nuclear tests were mostly short-lived, but those that erupted after the 2017 test intensified in both frequency and magnitude throughout 2025, they said.

Professor Kim Kwang-hee, who led the South Korean research team, warned that North Korea could experience an earthquake as strong as magnitude 6.4 if the fault zone where previous quakes were concentrated becomes active.

Editor's Summary A joint South Korean-Chinese study published in Science found that 1,330 earthquakes occurred near North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site after the country's 2017 nuclear test, following about 60 quakes after earlier tests. The lead South Korean researcher warned that the concentrated fault zone could produce a magnitude-6.4 earthquake. The findings suggest the nuclear tests may have contributed to prolonged seismic activity in the area.