Posted on 05/07/2004 7:15:07 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
/begin my translation
Ryongchon Explosion Occurred While Transporting Military Cargo?
Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese Daily, reported on 7th (of May, 2004), "In Ryongchon Blast, Syrian engineers were killed and wounded. A wagon carrying a large cargo had a particularly heavy damage, revealed on 6th (of May, 2004) by a military news source who has great expertise on Korean matters." According to the source, "the content of the cargo is unknown. However, after the accident, N. Korean military personnels in protective suits arrived at the scene, and recovered the remains of the destroyed wagon. We strongly suspect that the accident occurred while transporting a top-secret cargo between N. Korea and Syria."
The paper went on to say, citing the source, "Passengers in the wagon were engineers dispatched from Syria's Scientific Investigation and Research Center(CERS). CERS's goal is promoting science and technology. It is also suspected of a major involvement in the Syria's development of WMD's."
It also reported, "Engineers were in a separate compartment in a wagon from the cargo compartment. It is not clear whether the cargo was the primary source of the explosion or the secondary source after explosion from other wagons. However, it is true that this wagon had the most extensive damage. Close to 10 personnels of both Syrians and N. Koreans were either killed or wounded."
Syrian casualties went home via a Syrian transport plane on May 1st, which was there to pick up the cargo. All personnels involved in the transport (of Syrians), both Syrians and N. Koreans, were again wearing protective suits.
The paper further added, "The behaviors of N. Korea and Syria showed that this cargo is of utmost secret nature, which they never want to disclose. Countries like America suspect that N. Korea and Syria are cooperating the development of Syrian Scud D missiles or chemical weapons."
/end my translation
There was a time when I would believe that our covert operations would have taken it out. I'm afraid to say that those days appear to gone. Now we are to afraid of Senate hearings and who will apologize in case an innocent bystander was killed.
Good question, good challenge, I like that!
First, let's both start from the same information base. Here are two pages from different websites, that I used to glean both photos, information and reports from.
Next, let's check our assumptions. You asked why the crater was oblong and not circular. Was it oblong? How do know that for sure? The picture I linked you to in post #93 indeed shows an oblong crater, but it also shows distinct signs of tractor excavation and fill having been shoveled into the crater. If we compare that photo to a companion photo, you can see this was indeed the case.
Even the Global security.com web page (linked above) specifically states that soon after the event, the North Koreans began filling in the crater and GS.com even included a photo of the tractors excavating, similar to the photo I posted above. The most efficient way to fill such a crater, would be from a single side or two opposite sides, thus producing an elongated crater shape, as the hole is filled in.
There is one other (satellite) photo on the linked GS.com web page that has an earlier, but grainier view of the crater and the crater appears to be more or less round. QED!
BUT...
While going over these photos trying to find the answer to your question, something very interesting turned up that I hadn't expected to find. Click on the following two links. They will open automatically in new windows. Maximize both pages and then use [Alt]+[Tab] to switch back and forth quickly between the two photos. Use your scroll bars and mouse cursor, to align the major intersections on the photos so that both pages are aligned identically. Here are the links.
Look at the "before" photo, and notice in the center the dead end spur line that lazy S's its way in from the left side of the photo. Note that this spur line dead ends alongside, what appears to be, a long steel warehouse-type building.
Now switch to the "after" photo and place your cursor arrow in the center of the crater (as best you can). Now, without moving your cursor, switch back to the "before" photo and see what structure you are now pointing at. Your cursor should be pointing at the center of the last section (the left end) of that warehouse. THAT IS WHERE THE BLAST ORIGINATED! Not in the train, but in the warehouse!
But how can we be sure? After all, the tracks are immediately adjacent to the warehouse, so the blast could, arguably, have come just as easily from the railway car as from the warehouse, right?
Well, there is an answer right before our eyes in the photographs. Look at the "before" photo again and use your cursor to mark the location of the tracks alongside the warehouse. Now, while keeping your cursor in place, [Alt]+[Tab] to the "after" shot and look at what is on the ground there, a little to the right. There are three up-ended railway cars, presumably all that remains from the train that was parked there at the time of the explosion (all the other cars having been blown away). And especially notice which way they have been tipped over. They have been blown over sideways and off the tracks, but away from the warehouse! Therefore, the direction of the blast was likely from within the warehouse!
A reasonable analysis of that photo evidence suggests that the blast originated from inside the warehouse and also it suggests that it is likely that the railway cars had been parked there on the spur, alongside the warehouse, to facilitate either the loading or unloading of a cargo. That would be the reason for such a spur to exist in the first place. Presumably, that cargo is what exploded.
There are two scenarios that I can hypothesize, that could have led to the explosion.
Scenario One: If the exact nature of the cargo was as secret as the thread article indicates ("this cargo is of utmost secret nature, which they never want to disclose"), then it is likely that the workers (who probably had zero specialized training in how to safely move and handle high explosives) were being driven at top speed by their bosses to complete the job as quickly as possible. Not a smart move, under the circumstances, and a real Darwin Award winner. That is exactly how the Port Chicago Naval Magazine disaster occurred in 1944.
Scenario Two: It would be fairly simple matter for a saboteur to insert himself amongst the warehouse workers posing as a replacement worker, and covertly plant a detonator (the size of a soda can) in the cargo and then do a full tilt boogey out of town. There would be no witnesses left alive that could point to him, or even to the existence of such a replacement worker.
Anyway, that's my take on the matter. We started with your original question, eastforker, and answered it, but then we got lucky and stumbled on to what looks like a major clue (the warehouse) about what actually might have transpired that day and maybe we're now just a little closer to knowing what was responsible for the Ryongchon event.
--Boot Hill
I was suggesting raw, packaged RDX to be used in the construction of nukes. I agree with your observation that the lack of military style bomb fragments, is certainly suggestive that this was not an accident involving any ordinary type of military explosives.
(Yup, cleaned that place up reeeeal good!)
--Boot Hill
Thanks for your careful detective work! I think you contributed a valuable insight to the work of finding out what could have happened here.
I am sure that you are not alone in entertaining such an idea.:)
LOL, yeah, right! You mean you won't know until your covert agent in Syria completes his after action report!
(That's the problem with a newspaper story like this, you can't see the ear-to-ear grin on the "Western intelligence source"!)
--Boot Hill
In the first photo you posted in #109, you can see that dozers had pushed dirt down into the crater on the left. Also, it looks to me like dozers had made a "bridge" from the right to the left of the crater so they could get across. You can see the color of the fill dirt is different.
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