Earthquake hits North border area

BEIJING - A 6.7-magnitude earthquake rocked the region where China, Russia and North Korea meet yesterday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Though area residents said they did not feel the quake, office towers in Beijing - about 770 miles away from the epicenter - swayed slightly for about a minute.

The quake occurred 335 miles below the earth’s surface.

With earthquakes centered deep underground, sometimes people close to the epicenter don’t feel it while those farther away notice some shaking, said the duty officer at the Seismological Bureau of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China’s Jilin Province. The officer refused to give his name, a common practice among Chinese officials.

The Korea Earthquake Research Center said there was no damage in North or South Korea and that quakes occur in that region about once a year.

The USGS said the epicenter was on the Russian coast along the Sea of Japan, 61 miles west-southwest of Vladivostok, about 70 miles east of China’s Yanji city in Jilin Province.

AP