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Cells floating around just across the NK-China border, over the Yalu river and south of Dandong, PRC in the DPRK (that would be Sinuiju City and of course, Ryongchon further on down the railway line towards Pyongyang), are utilizing two systems right now. One using GSM and the other using Code Division Multiple Access.

Actually, the South Korean telephone units (CDMA) are much more preferable in that area for several reasons. They are also less susceptible to NK jamming. The GSM units can go approximately 15 kms, whereas the CDMA's go 18 kms. (The problem here is that Ryongchon is said to be about 25 kms from the border and hence, those towers. I am not sure if this is line of site or what). I think it should only be a matter of time to see if the Korean Worker's Party had out a party circular demanding seizure of both GSM and CDMA units by everyone, in that area. If so, there would be no other explanation for it than there had been an assassination attempt, and cell phone technology had been used. If such a circular can be brought out intact (and reputable), well, there's one smoking gun for sure.

Hi, AIL, it's been a while. How are you doing?

I read with interest your report about your ROK contact that suggested that Kim Jong-il had been in far closer proximity to the blast than previously disclosed. It became clear to me very early on, that this was no accidental explosion and that the early reports that claimed the President had passed through the area earlier, could not be coincidental (there aren't any), and that those two facts had to be closely tied.

Thanks for the interesting cell range data, that's about what I expected, about 10 miles (if you're lucky). As to whether Ryongchon is close enough to those Chinese cells, I was not sure about the distance either, so I went to MultiMap.com and got the following map. It looks like Ryongchon (Yongchon) is about 15 km from Anmin, China and about 18 km from Langtou, China. I would think that would place them outside any reasonable expectation of coverage by those Chinese cells.

--Boot Hill