The Defense Ministry has denied recent reports of possible nuclear tests in North Korea.

In a news conference Tuesday, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said no such indications were detected in Gilju County, North Hamgyeong Province.

Ministry spokesman Shin Hyun-don said the government and Washington share intelligence on the North, and that Seoul has received no information on any signs of a nuclear test in the region.

He said the government has monitored the area since discovering the North's digging of an underground tunnel there in the late 1990s, but has seen no unusual developments since.

Shin warned against hasty presumptions or speculation over the tunnel's purpose in the absence of concrete evidence.