World – AP Asia
Blast, Mushroom Cloud Reported in N. Korea
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea – A large explosion occurred in the northern part of North Korea (news – web sites), sending a huge mushroom cloud into the air on an important anniversary of the communist regime, a South Korean news agency reported Sunday.
The South Korean government said it was trying to confirm the report.
The Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified diplomatic source in Seoul, said the explosion happened at 11 a.m. local time Thursday in Yanggang province near the border with China. The blast in Kim Hyong Jik county left a crater big enough to be noticed by a satellite, the source said.
“We understand that a mushroom-shaped cloud about 2.2 miles to 2.5 miles in diameter was monitored during the explosion,” the source said. Yonhap described the source as “reliable.”
Thursday was the anniversary of the 1948 foundation of the communist regime. Leader Kim Jong Il uses the occasion to stage performances and other events to bolster loyalty among the impoverished North Korean population.
Experts have speculated that North Korea might use a major anniversary to conduct a nuclear-related test, though there was no immediate indication that the reported explosion on Thursday was linked to Pyongyang’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
“It remains unclear whether it was a deliberately planned nuclear test or it was just an accident,” the source in Seoul told Yonhap. “But it doesn’t seem to be an ordinary explosion.”
The source said the explosion took place “not far” from a military base that holds North Korea’s Taepo-dong ballistic missiles. North Korea, which has a large missile arsenal and more than a million soldiers, is dotted with military installations.
The damage and crater left by the explosion in Kim Hyong Jik county was big enough to be noticed by a satellite, a source in Beijing told Yonhap.
North Korea was founded on Sept. 9, 1948. Leader Kim Jong Il uses the anniversary to stage performances and other events to bolster loyalty among the impoverished North Korean population.
South Korea (news – web sites)’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said the government was trying to confirm the report about the explosion.
“I am not aware of details such as the size of the damage,” he was quoted as saying by Yonhap after a National Security Council meeting.
On Saturday, North Korea said recent revelations that South Korea conducted secret nuclear experiments involving uranium and plutonium made the communist state more determined to pursue its own nuclear programs.
The South Korean experiments, conducted in 1982 and 2000, were likely to further complicate the already stalled six-nation talks aimed at dismantling the North’s nuclear development. South Korea has said the experiments were purely for research and did not reflect a desire to develop weapons.
On April 22, train wagons at a railway station exploded in the North Korean town of Ryongchon, killing 160 people and injuring an estimated 1,300, according to some estimates. The blast was believed to have been sparked by a train laden with oil and chemicals that hit power lines.
The explosion on Thursday was bigger than the Ryongchon train explosion, which devastated a wide area, Yonhap said.
-ends-
This could be interesting…
😎
By: Spacepope - 17th September 2004 at 17:54
Ooooh!
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040917_2.html?INTERNATIONALad=true
Now observersseem to have been brought to a different site. In the mean time, South Korea says the thing that left the mushroom cloud and set off seismometers wasn’t really a blast… Is this strange to anyone else?
By: KJlost - 15th September 2004 at 20:52
re;
ROK photography satellite took photos of the region where the supposed explosion took place. The geograhpy hasn’t changed much, or so the scientists say. The satellite Arirang-1 is not military-grade satellite at 6.6m resolution.
By: Spacepope - 15th September 2004 at 16:42
Didn’t I read somewhere a few days back that a British diplomat was supposed to take a tour of the area afterr aising a ruckus? He was the one that informed the DPRK foreign affairs office, as they had not even known about it till he asked! In any case, we still haven’t gotten an on-the-ground report back from anyone yet.
By: SOC - 15th September 2004 at 15:06
The difference with Kruschev was that SS-4 IRBMs were clearly visible in overhead imagery. That’s a lot different than having a picture of a large cloud.
By: edisonone - 15th September 2004 at 15:05
😮
How’s about this scenario:
Maybe some of Kim’s Generals have this thingy about setting things
on fire, i.e., trains etc.!!! After all, the US did say that she’ll give Kim an “economic
package he couldn’t refuse”. Hey! It’s highly possible that the term “economic package he
couldn’t refuse” can be interpreted in a many ways and fashions.
Strangely enough however: The Pentagon is saying that it does
not know for certain the going’s on of those clouds. They claim that even satelite photography
does not a telltale sign make. In other words: No smoking guns.
Ironically however, aerial photographies
was the thing that got Kruschev into trouble in Cuba and the thing
that got him dethroned from the Kremlin.
Strange… very strange set of circumstances!!!
😮
By: edisonone - 15th September 2004 at 14:58
How’s about this scenario:
Maybe some of Kim’s Generals have this thingy about setting things
on fire, i.e., trains etc.!!! After all, the US did say that she’ll give Kim an “economic
package he couldn’t refuse”. Hey! It’s highly possible that the term “economic package he
couldn’t refuse” could be interpreted in a many ways and fashions.
Strangely enough however: The Pentagon is saying that it does not
know for certain the going’s on of those clouds. They claim that even satelite photography
does not a telltale sign make. In other words: No smoking guns.
Ironically however, aerial photographies
was the thing that got Kruschev into trouble in Cuba and
which got him dethroned from the Kremlin.
Strange… very strange set of circumstances!!!
(Damn… I doubled this. Can’t delete this one either. Why?)
By: phrozenflame - 15th September 2004 at 10:58
Maybe Kim got some shot of reallity??
or maybe a metor fell lol…just thinking…what if by chance..a meteor of significant size falls on NK, Kim may get upset and shoot all his meteors on neighbours?? any kind of way to prevent such misunderstandings?
By: ForkTailedDevil - 14th September 2004 at 22:19
The whole thing has shades of the Vela incident in 1979
By: edisonone - 13th September 2004 at 15:57
North Korea have said today it was a large planned demolition, apparently for a hydro-electric plant.
I thought they are broke and relying on
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3650702.stm
handouts from the international community?
So which is it???
😮
By: edisonone - 13th September 2004 at 15:54
Maybe it was a gas explosion, or a fuel-air-bomb test, or a rocket engine blew up. A nuclear explosion would have created a gamma-ray burst and that would have been monitored from orbit. But who knows who is really telling the truth here …
gas explosion, or a fuel-air-bomb test:
MOAB (Mother of All Bombs) does and can produce mushroom clouds.
A string of them unleashed over a 21 mile stretch can and will be visible to eyes in the sky.
More to that, MOAB’s are powerfull enough to make holes we call craters.
In fact, CNN had just presented viewer’s opinions and arguments
that gas explosions and forest fire don’t produce mushroom clouds and that the Pentagon
do know what it is but keeping mute about it for God knows why…
More hypothesis: A harmless (no collateral damage) event that
even the mighty Kim Jong himself is scratching his head over at this very moment and
wondering “if it might be a warning shot” from God knows who???
I’d keep all possibilities open until the truth has been proven beyond a doubt.
.
By: Arthur - 13th September 2004 at 11:36
Well, for a country which has a hydroelectric power plant as it’s national symbol, that’s a pretty good excuse.
By: GDL - 13th September 2004 at 10:01
North Korea have said today it was a large planned demolition, apparently for a hydro-electric plant.
By: Distiller - 13th September 2004 at 08:31
Maybe it was a gas explosion, or a fuel-air-bomb test, or a rocket engine blew up. A nuclear explosion would have created a gamma-ray burst and that would have been monitored from orbit. But who knows who is really telling the truth here …
By: Spacepope - 13th September 2004 at 03:57
Aren’t there currently 7 F-117s based in South Korea? Or has this changed recently?
By: edisonone - 13th September 2004 at 02:37
they cant really do much about it. Kim can keep whatever he has or loose everything…, man nice fiction stories they’ll write :rolleyes: His Generals probably told him that the artilleries are not in good conditions.
😮
Althought the idea may seem far, and I mean far fetched,
I for one however wouldn’t count anything out until the matter has been
clarified by all concerned as to what had actually happened .
I mean, while the south is creating a smoke screen, distraction if you will, i.e.,
that it too is playing around with the nuclear genie; and, while the Chinese on the other hand
is offering Kim all sorts of encouragements to remain discreet about it unless he wants to sign his own certtificate;
B-2’s and F-117’s can slip in and out of the peninsula without being detected…
In other words: The Guy might be a total blank about all of this himself!!!!
😮
By: phrozenflame - 12th September 2004 at 22:00
If it really was a U.S. strike, would you really think North Korea would stay quiet on it since Thursday?
they cant really do much about it. Kim can keep whatever he has or loose everything…and live with Saddam, man nice fiction stories they’ll write :rolleyes:
His Generals probably told him that the artilleries are not in good conditions.
By: SOC - 12th September 2004 at 18:55
Nuclear weapons aren’t the only explosives which can cause mushroom clouds. A forest fire igniting some Taepo-Dong fuel would create a massive explosion. And the crater doesn’t have to be enourmous to be visible by satellite either.
By: Spacepope - 12th September 2004 at 18:25
If it really was a U.S. strike, would you really think North Korea would stay quiet on it since Thursday?
By: Arthur - 12th September 2004 at 17:42
Still nothing of seismological monitoring stations, it doesn’t seem to be an explosion at all.
By: bring_it_on - 12th September 2004 at 17:40
North Korea blast not likely nuclear
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September 12, 2004 at 6:21 am