Is this a news story?

Read this story closely. Is there news in this story?

Activity at a North Korean facility suggests Pyongyang could be preparing its first test of a nuclear bomb, U.S. media on Thursday cited U.S. officials as saying.

But U.S. officials told Reuters they had no new evidence of such a plan, and a diplomatic official in Seoul familiar with the North’s nuclear program said he was skeptical of the reports.

Actually, it doesn’t take a close reading of that Reuters piece to see that it’s a non-story on what could potentially be very big and grave news out of North Korea. It’s based on this story by CNN.

Iran and North Korea are cavalier and flagrant in their disregard for the international community’s warnings against nuclear exploration. But at this point, the alleged speculation of an unnamed intelligence and/or military sources that barely said anything, is not something that has developed into a news story, yet. At least not a responsbile one.

After leading with this anonymous speculation about whether or not North Korea was actually up to something, the non-story went nowhere.

The officials emphasized, however, the development was minor and said there was no way to draw firm conclusions about what it means.

So why did CNN run with it?