Blast, Mushroom Cloud Reported in N. Korea

[JasonH]

Blast, Mushroom Cloud Reported in N. Korea
Major Explosion Followed by Mushroom Cloud Reported in North Korea on Key Communist Regime Date

The Associated Press



SEOUL, South Korea Sept. 11, 2004 â ” A large explosion occurred in the northern part of North Korea, sending a huge mushroom cloud into the air on an important anniversary of the communist regime, a South Korean news agency reported Sunday.
The Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified source in Beijing, said the explosion happened Thursday in Yanggang province near the border with China. The explosion in Kim Hyong Jik county blasted a crater big enough to be noticed by a satellite, the source said.



"We understand that a mushroom-shaped cloud about 3.5 to 4 kilometers (about 2-2 1/2 miles) in diameter was monitored during the explosion," Yonhap quoted an unidentified diplomatic source in Seoul as saying.

North Korea was founded Sept. 9, 1948. 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 Thursday's reported explosion was linked to Pyongyang's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Kim Hyong Jik is reported to hold a major missile base. North Korea, which has a large missile arsenal and more than 1 million soldiers, is dotted with military installations.

South Korea's Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Sunday the government was in the process of confirming reports there were signs of an explosion in North Korea.

"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 atomic 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 source in the Yonhap report said Thursday's explosion reportedly was bigger than the train explosion.



Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040911_1534.html

 

[JasonH]

If this were the case that it was a nuclear test it could may well have implications for more then just South Korea... but for the world. 

 

[nULL]

let's just hope it was planned and not an accident!

 

[Scott]

Either way it is not a good thing.

 

[JasonH]

And besides it must of been a nuke blast if it made a mushroom cloud 3-4 km's high... the only bombs able to do that is the likes of the MOAB bomb that the United States has and North Korea doesn't come close to that kind of Conventional Warfare Missile/Bomb

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Published: Sep 12, 2004



WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States does not believe that a large explosion in North Korea was related to the communist country's suspected nuclear weapons program, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday.
"There was no indication that was a nuclear event of any kind. Exactly what it was, we're not sure," Powell said.

The explosion occurred Thursday near the border with China, according to a South Korean report.

North Korea is believed to be developing nuclear weapons. International experts would likely have been able to detect a test if one had occurred several days ago.

Powell told ABC's "This Week" that there were "some activities taking place and some sites that we're watching carefully, but it is not conclusive that they are moving toward a test."

He said the United States is concerned about "all of North Korea's nuclear development activities."

The United States, Russia, Japan, China and the two Koreas have held talks on North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons development, and they agreed to hold another round of negotiations in Beijing this month. No date has been set.

The United States has pushed for North Korea to fully disclose all of its nuclear activities and allow outside monitoring before it receives any assistance. North Korea wants energy aid, lifting of economic sanctions and removal from its inclusion on Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

AP-ES-09-12-04 0943EDT

 

[winchable]

Alright, so what we know is there are reports of a mushroom cloud 3-4 Km's high and a crater was visible by sattelite in the general area of where said blast was supposed to take place...d'no much about Nuclear weapons, but it sounds like one!?

Question; If it's not a nuclear blast, what is it?
I'm not a WMD expert, so please if anyone has any ideas, do tell.

 

[JasonH]

Well CNN is reporting it 'could' be a cloud from forest fires.. watch out fella's, try not to step in all the BS.

Hopefully there will be more on this by tonight or tomorrow but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to relize that a 3km tall mushroom cloud that's 4km's wide with a crater visible from space at a missile launching facility in north korea to figure out that something is wrong here.

 

[nULL]

if it was deep enough underground, would there still be a nuclear signature they could see from space?

 

[McG]

Did the Halifax explosion produce a mushroom cloud?

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

The Explosion
At 9:04:35 Mont-Blanc exploded with a force stronger than any manmade explosion before it.

The steel hull burst sky-high, falling in a blizzard of red-hot, twisted projectiles on Dartmouth and Halifax.

Some pieces were tiny; others were huge. Part of the anchor hit the ground more than 4 kilometers away on the far side of Northwest Arm. A gun barrel landed in Dartmouth more than 5 kilometers from the harbour.

After the Blast
The explosion sent a white cloud billowing 20,000 feet above the city.

For almost two square kilometers around Pier 6, nothing was left standing. The blast obliterated most of Richmond: homes, apartments and business, even the towering sugar refinery.

On the Dartmouth side, Tuft's Cove took the brunt of the blast. The small Mi'kmaq settlement of Turtle Grove was obliterated.

 

[McG]

Therefore, a sufficiently large accident can produce a mushroom cloud.

 

[Infanteer]

Maybe another one of their trains went AWOL....

 

[Korus]

Before the trinity gadget was detonated, the US conducted the '100 ton' test, where they stacked up about 108 tons of TNT, and detonated it.  Here's a picture of the fireball: http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/100TonExp3.jpg.

I can't seem to find any more data on that test, and how large of a crater/mushroom cloud was created, but it's something to keep in mind when considering what happened in NK recently.. Could be a test similar to the 100 ton test, could be them trying to fake having a nuke, could be an actual nuke, could be just another accident, it could be something else entirely...

 

[lfejoel25]

Isn't there a way to tell if it was a nuke?  for example detecting the electromagnetic pulse, or radiation or something?

 

[Jarnhamar]

This may be a crazy idea but why doesn't North Korea put the energy and efforts from their nuclear program into feeding their population?

 

[Redeye]

Probably has something to do with their Dear Leader being a paranoid megalomaniac, but I'm not sure.  The DPRK has massive stockpiles of food (rice, etc), but it's all reserved for the military and not released to the public, and so people starve because their chronic agricultural mismanagement and bad climactic luck euchre them basically every year.

And despite this, many of them believe they live in paradise, because propaganda blares at them constantly that it's worse everywhere else.  Ice the cake with being almost totally cut off from the outside world (radios and cellphones are illegal!) and you have the recipe for quite the unstable dictatorship.

Fortunately it was not a nuclear event (if it was the EMP and radiation flashover would have been detected almost immediately - most likely a conventional explosion, either deliberate or accidental - though we're not too likely to know, because the North Koreans tend to keep a lot to themselves, and KCNA isn't reporting anything on it yet.

 

[Jarnhamar]

What a bunch of assholes.

 

[pegged]

From the CNN article:

"Rammell asked that international diplomats be allowed to inspect the site, and the Foreign Office said North Korea has agreed to the request."

 

[I_am_John_Galt]

"North Korea has said a large mushroom cloud seen over the nation in satellite images was the result of a deliberate demolition of a mountain for a power plant."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/09/13/nkorea.blast/index.html