By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter

Intelligence reports of a massive explosion accompanied by a mushroom-shaped cloud over North Korea’s Kimhyongjik county were a false alarm, South Korean officials concluded yesterday.

``The Seoul government now thinks there was no explosion in Kimhyongjik county,’’ Unification Vice Minister Rhee Bong-jo told reporters during a briefing. ``There is no additional information to indicate an explosion in the area intelligence officials suspected a blast had occurred.’’

The comments came after a delegation of foreign diplomats inspected a construction site for a hydroelectric power plant located in Samsu county, about 100 kilometers east of where the suspicious cloud was sighted on Sept. 9. North Korean officials said two controlled blasts were detonated last week at the construction site to clear rock.

But Rhee indicated those explosions were unrelated to South Korean intelligence of a huge blast in Kimhyongjik county, a mountainous area near North Korea’s border with China.

He concurred with a report by the National Intelligence Service Wednesday that the mushroom-shaped cloud was probably just an unusual weather pattern. Seismic readings in the area were likely related to volcanic activity at Mt. Paektu, Rhee added.

News of a massive explosion in the early morning of North Korea’s Sept. 9 founding anniversary initially sparked fears that Pyongyang had conducted a nuclear test. Seoul and Washington quickly ruled out the possibility but various other theories were thrown around, including an explosion at an underground munitions depot or a failed missile launch.

Pyongyang dismissed this speculation Monday, claiming that the explosions were innocuous detonations to demolish a mountainside as part of the hydroelectric dam project.

Seeking to clear suspicions, the North on Thursday took a group of seven foreign diplomats _ led by David Slinn, Britain’s ambassador to Pyongyang _ to inspect the construction site in Samsu county.

North Korean officials restated their initial explanation of the blasts and the manager of the construction site briefed the diplomats on the explosives used and the amount of soil that had to be removed. They said more detonations were planned at the site.

``The diplomats inspected the site for 90 minutes and were allowed to take photographs of the area,’’ British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said. ``The information they gathered will be reported back to technical experts in their respective capitals. We now need to await their findings.’’

Meanwhile, a Russian diplomat said at least three explosions took place at the site of the dam _ two on Sept. 8 and one on Sept. 9.

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr