The U.S. government has yet to confirm independently the reports of the
nuclear test conducted bythe Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), U.S.
State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper told Xinhua on Sunday.
Meanwhile, U.S. media reports quoted U.S. military officials assaying that
they believed the reports on the DPRK's first nuclear test were true, though
they were still assessing seismic and intelligence data to make a firm
confirmation.
The CNN cited U.S. Defense Department officials as saying that they had no
absolute confirmation of the DPRK nuclear test so far, but they had seismic data
and other types of intelligence data that they were looking through at this
moment.
The assessment might take several hours or more to draw a final conclusion,
they said.
According to U.S. media reports, the U.S. government is taking the reports
seriously and a wide range of U.S. government agencies are looking into the
matter.
There are also reports saying the U.S. Geological Survey has detected "some
seismic activity" in the DPRK.
"We did locate some seismic activity. We are working on that event," a
Geological Survey official said on Monday.
The DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency reported on Monday that the
country successfully conducted an underground nuclear test earlier in the day.