Sucessful in anti-ship missile test: pak

KARACHI: Pakistan said it conducted a successful test of the firing of an anti-ship missile from a Sea King helicopter in northern Arabian Sea on Saturday.

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah witnessed the missile firing demonstration, a press release issued by the navy said.

The anti-ship missile successfully hit its target. According to the navy spokesperson, Zakaullah said the successful firing demonstration was a testament to Pakistan Navy’s war preparedness and professional capabilities.

The naval chief also visited fleet units stationed in the sea and witnessed exercises involving the naval fleet.

“I am proud of Pakistan Navy fleet’s war preparations,” Zakaullah was quoted as saying. A small earthquake near North Korea’s nuclear test site on Saturday was probably not manmade, the nuclear proliferation watchdog and a South Korean official said, easing fears Pyongyang had exploded another nuclear bomb just weeks after its last one.

Chinese earthquake officials said the magnitude 3.4 quake detected at 0829 GMT was a “suspected explosion” but both the CTBTO, which monitors nuclear tests, and a South Korean meteorological agency official said they believed it was a natural quake.

“A key method is to look at the seismic waves or seismic acoustic waves and the latter can be detected in the case of a manmade earthquake,” said the South Korean official, who asked for anonymity. “In this case we saw none. So as of now, we are categorizing this as a natural earthquake.”

The earthquake, which South Korea put at magnitude 3.0, was detected in Kilju county in North Hamgyong Province, where North Korea’s known Punggyeri nuclear site is located, the official said.

All of North Korea’s previous six nuclear tests reg-