Ryongchon Explosion Occurred While Transporting Military Cargo? (Syria, WMD Connection)

www.independent.co.kr ^ | 05/07/04 | Yoo Hae-sung

[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

[menotyu]

Good point, also let's just asume for a moment that there were 2 trains on that section of track. How fast could they be travelling that close to the station it's a dead end? Surely not fast enough to cause anything like this. here is another pic from the site before they bulldozed everything. Notice the 3 gentlemen at the site looking at the scene. One is wearing jeans with a jacket the other 2 are wearing suits. Very strange in this town to see guys in suits. They don't look like reporters they don't have note pads or anything and one of them seems interested in the person taking this pic. Since we are on the theory train here's mine. We did this, amonnium nitrate is used as fuel for surface to surface missles. Missles which Syrian agents was overseeing the delivery of that day. In the last couple of days there have been stories that NK is ready to sell some of their missle tech, this is a message to us "hey, we know it was you". Oh and those 3 guys are in my estimation NK agents looking over the damage. Oh well it's just a thoery.

[menotyu]

I'm sorry the pic is soo big I tried to post the smaller one but it didn't work

[First_Salute]

As stated, it was a training accident.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Hmmmmmn.

Train loaded with (solid-fuel) missiles ....

Could be.

[Grampa Dave]

This is not the first time for Syrian engineers to have things go boom on them:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1130936/posts?page=466#466

To: Grampa Dave; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SAMWolf; BOBTHENAILER; devolve
Missile factory blows up in Syria

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, April 3, 2002
LONDON — An explosion has been reported at a leading Syrian weapons factory, killing 35 people.

The explosion was reported early last week in the northern Syrian city of Homs. Western diplomatic sources said a factory in a huge Syrian weapons complex exploded, killing many of the technicians in the building and causing widespread damage.

The sources said they did not know the cause of the blast. The Homs complex produces Scud C and D missiles as well as nonconventional weapons, according to Middle East Newsline.

Homs, with a population of about 500,000 people, is located 160 kilometers north of Damascus. The city has an oil refinery and is a major railroad junction.

The sources said the explosion took place either on March 24 or March 25. They said they did not know exactly what facility was destroyed.

"It could have been an explosion of a missile or something that took place during the production or testing of explosives," a Western intelligence source said. "We don't know and we might not know for a while."

U.S. intelligence sources said Syria maintains a missile test site 15 kilometers south of Homs. They said Syria has tested such missiles as the Scud C and Scud D as well as chemical warheads.

Syria also constructed missile factories in nearby Hama, about 110 kilometers north of Damascus. One factory is meant to produce solid-fuel missiles and the other is for liquid-fuel missiles. The solid-fuel missile is being developed with the help of Iran.

The Homs explosion is said to be the latest in a series of accidents that have taken place during Syria's missile and nonconventional weapons programs. In 1991, the Syrian Health Ministry closed down five pharmaceuticals plants, including one in Homs, during what Western intelligence agencies determined were tests of chemical weapons.


466 posted on 05/07/2004 5:00:32 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)

[PA Engineer]

Interesting. BTTT.

[Wiggins]

Anybody want to bet we took it out before it could leave country?

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.

[eastforker]

shhh!!!Nobody knows about these guys. As my wifes ex CIA husband would say, we can count the hairs on their chin.

[Boot Hill]

• "Please explaine why the long crater was perpendiculer to the tracks and not circuler like most explosions, if you have any idea, please , enlighten us."

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.

The Korea Times story

The Global Security.com story

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.

Railway yard -- before

Railway yard -- after

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

[Boot Hill]

• "Anyway ... If RDX or explosives were involved, they weren't in 1000-2000 lb "bomb" sized lots."

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

[hershey]

Yup, the whole story smelled right from the start. The fluctuating victim numbers, the vague details of how it happened, etc.. Big time coverup. Special suits? Syria? My, my, maybe it's time for a couple of MOABs to fall from a very big US plane right on Syria's presidential palaces and nuclear facilities. After all, we have a 'beleagured' human rights record and have no moral legs left to stand on in this world...forever. Why not do what we did to that Chinese embassy a few years back? Drop a bomb on it accidentally.

[hershey]

Or was it fertilizer? Not.

[hershey]

Of course, if Kerry wins in Nov., all preventive measures like this would stop in their tracks. And whatever bad that happened would be Bush's fault ad infinitum.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #109

Thanks for your careful detective work! I think you contributed a valuable insight to the work of finding out what could have happened here.

[hershey]

I wonder what the NYTimes will make of this? Evil doings by Evil Uncle Sam, no doubt, and another bad week for Kerry.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #111

I am sure that you are not alone in entertaining such an idea.:)

[hershey]

Um, I respectfully disagree. As long as Bush occupies the WH and Rumsfeld is Sec. of Defense, they'll fund operations like this. Bush is a man with a mission, to defend this country the best way he can until the last breath has left his body. Rumsfeld is on record as pushing for more covert ops, expanding special forces, etc.. If we helped take this train out, it makes perfect sense and was cheap at the price.

[Boot Hill]

• " 'It could have been an explosion of a missile or something'....a Western intelligence source said. 'We don't know and we might not know for a while'."

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

[freeangel]

Good news bump!

[snopercod]

Nice work.

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.