Posted on 05/18/2004 9:17:58 AM PDT by cooldog
N. Korean rail explosion foiled missile shipment to Syria
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Tuesday, May 18, 2004
A North Korean missile shipment to Syria was halted when a train collision in that Asian country destroyed the missile cargo and killed about a dozen Syrian technicians.
U.S. officials confirmed a report in a Japanese daily newspaper that a train explosion on April 22 killed about a dozen Syrian technicians near the Ryongchon province in North Korea. The officials said the technicians were accompanying a train car full of missile components and other equipment from a facility near the Chinese border to a North Korea port.
A U.S. official said North Korean train cargo was also believed to have contained tools for the production of ballistic missiles. North Korea has sold Syria the extended-range Scud C and Scud D missiles, according to reports by Middle East Newsline.
"The way it was supposed work was that the train car full of missiles and components would have arrived at the port and some would have been shipped to Syria while others would have been transported by air," an official said.
Officials said the North Korean shipment to Syria was not meant to have contained chemical or biological weapons. They said foreign rescue crews summoned to the train explosion did not report any chemical contamination.
The explosion was said to have been caused by a collision of two trains. The collision downed an electrical power line, the sparks from which detonated the fuel from the train.
On May 4, the Tokyo-based Sankei Shimbun quoted a military source that reported the death of the Syrian technicians. The newspaper said North Korean military personnel, wearing protective suits, removed the vestiges of the destroyed equipment meant for Syria.
The technicans were representatives of Syria's Center for Scientific Research, which has been cited for helping develop that country's weapons of mass destruction program. The technicians were said to have been trained in North Korea to operate the equipment.
Sankei said the bodies of the Syrians were flown home by a Syrian aircraft, which had arrived in Pyongyang to deliver aid supplies. The newspaper said North Korean personnel were also killed in the explosion.
I thought the Japanese had video satellite that showed rescue workers wearing chemical gear because they knew that WMD were on that train?
Syria should be next.
No wonder the blast was that impressive.
I would *LOVE* to think that we had something to do with this ....
For anyone who has not seen it, here's a startling before/after photo of the affected area. Check out the damage--"extensive" is an understatement.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/ryongchon-imagery_comp01.htm
Ummmmm, we invented electrical generation! There!
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. These monkeys are after me 'cuz I took this train. Obviously it's not my train, it's not my style. It belongs to Kim Jong-Il and the stuff on it belongs to Bashir Assad..."
"Bashir Assad, you're a bad man. What do we do to bad men? We punish them. Bashir, you're about to enter...The Xander Zone."
(Keys radio)
"Comin' in hot with a side of kimchi!"
"Bond. James Bond."
I have been keeping on top of this and it is evident the explosion was in the warehouse. Now my question is this. What type of explosion could have done this much damage? IMHO after looking at the crater it must have been some type of bunker buster, if not, what type of explosive leaves that big of a crater detonated above ground.
It's not the specific type of explosive, it's the quantity thereof. The answer is "a whole s**tpot full of explosive."
I would like your insight to my post # 10 please.
I posted this on another thread.
Notice the craters on the dead end path of the rail that end right at the back door of a building. Kind of hard to have two trains collide on a dead end section.
Hmm... I wonder if the train didn't have some sort of NASTY accident. I mean, it blew up pretty good...
*Pause*
Of course, nobody WOULD see a B-2 or similar plane, would they?
Remember when the President said the war iagainst terrorrism would be fought in many fronts, some we would be aware of, others we would not hear of?
I believe that this was an operation.
I agree with your post #10. Will look in to what type of device would cause the visual damage. Tell me if you learn anything.
See post #11.
Yeah, I wonder if the explosion site was within SLCM range?
I heard this story the other day, but none of the world's media has yet given it credibility as of yet. It could be just a theory. Time will tell. This is the only media outlet reporting that I know of..with "sources"..how credible? We would like to believe this to prove all suspicions.
Regards
fight_truth_decay
A train full of missiles from N. Korea heading to Syria ... would have to cross ... China?
Perhaps Beijing wasn't comfortable with that.
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