Envoys visit N Korea mystery site

Satellite images from before (L) and after the blast show little change

Diplomats from eight countries are visiting the site of a blast in North Korea last week which was at first suspected of being a nuclear test.

Satellite photographs of the area showed a mushroom-shaped cloud.

But North Korea says the explosion was related to the construction of a dam - and the US and South Korea have accepted it was not nuclear.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service has said the cloud may in fact have been a natural formation.

The diplomats from Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Mongolia, Poland, Russia and Sweden left the North Korean capital by plane at 0800 (2300 GMT on Wednesday).

The group, which includes British Ambassador to North Korea David Slinn, could stay in the area where the blast occurred - near Yongjo-ri in Yanggang Province - until Friday.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said North Korea's explanation of the blast squared with the information Washington had gathered.

But a South Korean satellite which photographed the area on Wednesday provided inconclusive evidence.

"There might have been a blast to build a hydroelectric power dam... or there might have been natural clouds with a peculiar (mushroom-like) shape," South Korea's National Intelligence Service said.