Pyongyang's claim that it detonated a nuclear device underground on Monday has met with unanimous international condemnation, and a draft UN Security Council resolution has been drawn up by the United States pressing for sanctions against the reclusive communist state, with which Russia shares a small border.
A spokesman for the agency in the Russian Pacific region said: "As of October 10, the background radiation level in the south of the Primorye Territory bordering North Korea is 10-11 microroentgen/hour. The maximum permissible background radiation level established in Russia is 20 microroentgen/hour."
He said the agency would continue collecting air samples to be analyzed for radioactivity for at least a week.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Tuesday that his country has also been monitoring radiation levels, and so far has detected no major changes.
North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, and in February 2005 announced it had acquired nuclear weapons. Some experts, however, questioned the claim.
Negotiations involving six nations - North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States - seek to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program. Talks began in 2003, but stalled last November.
Mediators proposed building a nuclear reactor for North Korea if it abandoned its nuclear program, but Pyongyang said it wants the reactor first and will then give up its nuclear research.
At the latest round of talks in September, 2005, North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees, but later refused to return to the negotiating table until Washington lifted financial sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for its alleged involvement in counterfeiting and other illegal activities
