South Korea rattled by rare 5.4-magnitude quake

SEOUL (Reuters) - A rare earthquake of magnitude 5.4 rattled South Korea on Wednesday, its second most powerful quake on record, shaking buildings but causing no major damage or injuries.

The quake struck about 9 km (5 miles) north of the southeastern port city of Pohang, the Korea Meteorological Administration said in a news briefing.

Tremors were felt across the country but operations at nuclear reactors were not affected, the state-run nuclear operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co said in a statement.

South Korea has relatively little seismic activity, compared with Japan to the east.

Its strongest quake on record was magnitude 5.8 in September last year.

(Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Yuna Park; Additional reporting by Jane Chung, Haejin Choi; Editing by Robert Birsel)