The so-called secret test site in North Korea is no longer much of a secret to anyone with a web browser. US Geological Survey (USGS) data from today’s detonation (Magnitude 4.7 – NORTH KOREA, 2009 May 25 00:54:43 UTC ) and the initial one in 2006 (Magnitude 4.3 – NORTH KOREA, 2006 October 09 01:35:28 UTC) pinpoint the epicentre of the explosions to a 10km square site in Chik-tong, P’unggye-yok, on the north east edge of North Korea, near its border with China. I’ve plotted the two ‘earthquake’ sites on a Google Map.

The Cryptome Eyeball Series is a project that uses web mapping applications to circumvent government and military secrecy. After the first nuclear test in North Korean in 2006 it collated data from sources across the web and published a series of Google maps of the test site including potential mines, works, drilling rigs and test facilities.

In a similar timeframe, Global Security Report, a US intelligence gathering organisation, reported that it had identified the North Korean nuclear test site after “a member of the intelligence committee of South Korea’s National Assembly reported on the construction of a tunnel at Mount Mantap in North Hamkyong Province”.

Both the Cryptome Eyeball Series and the Global Security Report locations coincide with the data published by the USGS. Even a decade ago this level of information would have been classified military intelligence.