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

[Boot Hill]

• "We did this, amonnium nitrate is used as fuel for surface to surface missles."

You may be thinking of ammonium perchlorate, which is a commonly used oxidizer for solid fuel rockets (since about 1957). To my knowledge, ammonium nitrate has never been used in solid fuel rockets.

Moreover, the longer this story plays out and the more information we get (yeah, and dis-information, too!), the more I'm convinced that the ammonium nitrate story was strickly North Korean dis-information. It is just too difficult to convert the ammonium nitrate into ANFO properly and also difficult to detonate. (See this)

(Good photo, btw)

--Boot Hill

[Boot Hill]

Why, thank you, TLR!

--Boot Hill

[Boot Hill]

• "You can see the color of the fill dirt is different."

Good observation, I agree.

(Have you noticed that ever since OKC, Americans have become a bit wary of people that run around filling in blast craters?!)

--Boot Hill

[bitt]

BTTT - thanks, good work.

[camas]

8000 houses times X number of people per house = number of people living there and only 154 killed. some thing does not compute.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #125

No, it doesn't. Furthermore, people are still dying of injuries from the explosion at this moment, in my opinion.

[snopercod]

I was thinking it was more of a demosnstration test.

[airborne]

Your post #109 was excellent!!!
Nice detective work!

[camas]

sharp!!!

[Boot Hill]

Thanks for the supportive comments, they're appreciated.

--Boot Hill

[eastforker]

Very good photo analysis, thank you. I hadn't taken into account that the crater was already being filled in.Any guess as to the actual strength of the explosion and any ordinance we have in our arsenal?

[Grampa Dave]

One of our oldest friend is a retired CIA op.

His first assignments were the N K's and the Chi Coms re recon intel and ?.

When the first Syrian explosion happened two years ago, I mentioned it to him.

He responded with his famous "I can't confirm, deny nor comment on that" grin.

We will see him in a couple of weeks. I'm sure that we will see the same grin when I bring up this explosion.

[Grampa Dave]

Good work. I have seen pictures of train wreck explosions for decades when tank cars exploded. I have never seen any holes dug in the ground like that.

[Grampa Dave]

"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."

When the full size of this explosion was dribbled out by various sources, it started sounding like the Port Chicago Blast in N. California in 1944.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Fewer Syrian missile "engineers", eh?

March 24 or 25. Interesting.

[Grampa Dave]

I doubt if they have that many to begin with. So the fewer of those slide rule guys, the safer we are.

Jordan is probably sending their special ops into Syria to cause some similiar problems. The moment the Saudis get a real threat or taste of WMDS, they will do the same.

We can loan them some intel pictures and let them do the work. That is one of the better ways for us to handle covert ops. Just turn them over to Jordan or the Saudis.

Your tag line is a great one, I hope more Freepers read it and become monthly donors.

[ASA Vet]

Thank you for the ping Sir.
I'd already made the same determination the first day those before & after photos were posted.
I didn't figure it was prudent for me to comment.

[Grampa Dave]

Good morning and no comment! :)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Fascinating ......

Now about this picture...www.globalsecurity.org...:

They have two craters outlined, can't get the blowup to download to look at closer.

Primary and secondary explosion's?????

[Holden Magroin]

We ought to invade Syria and take back the Crac des Chevaliers.