The Soviet-era intelligence agency had regularly updated Kremlin about the atomic technology transfer by Pakistan and China to North Korea, which has conducted its first nuclear test, a top Russian nuclear expert said on Tuesday.
"It is not a secret that Pakistan and China have provided nuclear weapons technology to North Korea. The KGB was aware of this and had regularly submitted its reports to the Politburo," Gen (retd) Vladimir Dvorkin told state-run Radio Mayak.
Commenting on the test conducted by Pyongyang on Monday, Gen Dvorkin said it was a nuclear device and not a weapon.
"We can for sure say that it was a nuclear explosion, but it was the test of a device weighing few tons and not a weapon, a warhead, which you can deliver," he said, adding that at this juncture, it was not clear as to how long it could take Pyongyang to make a nuclear warhead.
He cautioned about the real military threat to Russia's security in the Far East posed by North Korean test.
"Even if a conflict breaks out on the Korean peninsula with the use of modern conventional weapons, with dozens of nuclear power stations in South Korea, the scanty population in the Russian far east will flee from their homes fearing radiation fallout, leaving vast territories vacant, which would be promptly occupied by Chinese refugees," Dvorkin cautioned.
Media reports said the residents in Vladivostok are frantically buying Geiger Counters to check the radiation levels as the North Korean test range was situated only 130 km from the Russian border.