Tags: Moscow

Moscow, May 25 : North Korea exploded its second nuclear device which had a force of 20 kilotons, Russia confirmed today, saying that a test was a cause of "concern".

"According to our technical facilities for the monitoring of nuclear tests, the power of nuclear device was around 20 kilotons. The test was conducted at the same range in north-east of the DPRK, as the first one in 2006," Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Col Alexander Drobyshevsky was quoted as saying by state-run Vesti-FM radio.

Russia, which shares a small border with North Korea in the Far East, has nuclear radiation control services in place there to monitor nuclear activities.

Moscow closely interacts with South Korea and Japan on the monitoring details.

"The radiation levels on the Maritime Territory are normal and would be monitored every three hours for a week," regional met office said in its release.

According to ITAR-TASS, normally the radiation levels are measured twice every day.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the North Korean nuclear test was a violation of the UN Security Council's resolution and a matter of "concern".

"Naturally, we are concerned at the reports about explosion of nuclear device by DPRK," Lavrov told Vesti TV, but said details of the test would be known only after 'analysis of data'.

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