By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter

Intelligence analysis of an explosion in North Korea’s Ryanggang Province on Sept. 9 corroborates with Pyongyang’s explanation that it was a controlled blast to clear rock, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.

``The explosion was possibly part of work to build a hydroelectric power plant,’’ a National Intelligence Service (NIS) official said in a report to the National Assembly in Seoul Wednesday.

The unidentified official said a mushroom-shaped cloud near the blast site, which initially sparked concerns that the North had conducted a nuclear test, was probably an innocuous cumulous cloud.

``The peculiar-shaped cloud could be just a natural phenomenon when the weather conditions at that time are considered,’’ the official told the Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, adding that the NIS will continue investigations to verify what happened.

New images captured by South Korea’s Arirang No. 1 satellite at around 11 a.m. yesterday also indicated no dramatic change in the landscape around the blast site. But experts said the image resolution was too low to make a final determination on the cause of the blast.

North Korea claimed on Monday that the explosion was a detonation planned as part of a dam project, dismissing suggestions of a nuclear test or an explosion at an underground munitions depot.

A top U.S. official also supported Pyongyang’s explanation. ``The information they gave is consistent with what we saw,’’ U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell said Tuesday.

The intelligence findings appear to bring an end to a week of speculation following the blast, nearby which satellite photos showed a billowing mushroom-shaped cloud around 3.5 kilometers in diameter. Seoul and Washington had already ruled out the possibility of a nuclear test but various other theories were thrown around.

Questions still remain over the timing of the explosion, which occurred just after midnight on North Korea’s Sept. 9 founding anniversary.

Putting the controversy down to misleading satellite images, an official at the Korean Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources said its earthquake detection center has found no indications of a large explosion.

``If there was a big explosion around September 9, we would have found some evidence of it,’’ he said.

``It’s highly likely that this explosion will turn out to be a `happening,’’’ he concluded. The English word ``happening’’ is used in South Korea to describe a situation where a big fuss is stirred up over nothing.

Meanwhile, David Slinn, Britain’s ambassador to Pyongyang, said he and diplomats from eight other countries will be allowed to inspect the site of the explosion today.

The trip to Ryanggang Province, which Pyongyang agreed to arrange earlier this week, was delayed due to logistical problems.

But Slinn said North Korea’s Foreign Ministry ``has worked hard and cooperated well’’ in preparing for the trip, which will be made by plane and off-road vehicle.

Pyongyang’s Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun promised visiting British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell on Monday to allow foreign diplomats to visit the site on Tuesday or Wednesday.

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr