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North Korean Security Believes Ryongchon Explosion an Assassination Attempt(Cellphones now banned)
Chosun Ilbo ^ | 05/24/04 | Kang Chol-hwan

Posted on 05/25/2004 7:29:57 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

North Korean Security Believes Ryongchon Explosion an Assassination Attempt

According to a source, North Korea's State Safety & Security Agency concluded that the massive explosion that occurred in the North Korean city of Ryongchon on April 22 had been conspired by anti-North Korean government forces to harm North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. A North Korean official who was recently on his business trip to China said, “The North Korean National Security Agency has investigated the incident since it took place and concluded that rebellious forces had plotted the explosions targeting the exclusive train of Kim Jong-il. The security agency, in particular, gained evidence that cell phones had been used in triggering the explosion and reported to the North Korean leader that the use of cell phones should be banned for the sake of the leader’s safety, the official said.

Accordingly, it was learned that North Korea prohibited the use of cell phones across the nation on May 19.

An officer working with a North Korean border guard unit, which is in charge of guarding the border area between the North and China, said in a phone call with this writer that the use of cell phones was banned in Pyongyang first on May 19, and then prohibited in other regions on May 20.

A North Korea defector who crossed the border a few days ago said, “It doesn’t seem to be a temporary measure, because even handsets have been conscripted following the cell phone use ban.” “The Postal Service, which manages the cell phone business, has unilaterally conscripted handsets without offering any compensations. It's a typical example of a dictatorial state,” the defector pointed out.

North Korea began to use European-type GSM phones in August 2002 and started cell phone service in Najin and Sunbong, the North Korean special economic areas, starting November that year. However, in areas bordering China, an increasing number of North Korean people have already used cell phones with handsets made in China since the end of 1990s.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: assassination; attempt; boom; canyouhearmenow; cellphonejihad; cellphones; explosion; kimjongchol; kimjongil; nkorea; nktrainwreck; northkorea; poisonedchopsticks; ryongchon
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To: js1138
Re #38

Please read my reply #32. I think it would answer your question.

41 posted on 05/25/2004 8:21:58 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: AmericanInTokyo
He also said that Chungguk may be involved

AIT who is Chungguk?

42 posted on 05/25/2004 8:29:37 AM PDT by Dog (In Memory of Pat Tillman ---- ---- ---- American Hero.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Cell phones don't kill people ... people do.


43 posted on 05/25/2004 8:33:21 AM PDT by Merciful_Friend
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Where is Kim Jong-nam, and does he dress like the UPS man too?


44 posted on 05/25/2004 8:34:11 AM PDT by Guillermo (Simpson, you've got a short in your tail light. It started blinking when you made that turn - Wiggum)
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To: Guillermo
Re #44

He is rumored to be in China. He does not dress like his dad. However, he is just as fat and butt ugly, only younger.:)

45 posted on 05/25/2004 8:36:04 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: Dog
Re #42

Chungguk = Zhonguo = China

46 posted on 05/25/2004 8:37:04 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster
For this article, there is no corresponding article in Korean. They wrote the English version first. I wonder why.

Cover story to hide what really was going on. Standard operating procedure.
47 posted on 05/25/2004 8:49:04 AM PDT by DarkWaters
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Why is he on the "outs" with his father?

(I guess this is impossible to truly know?)


48 posted on 05/25/2004 8:52:31 AM PDT by Guillermo (Simpson, you've got a short in your tail light. It started blinking when you made that turn - Wiggum)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Whaddaya think -- Mossad, trying to keep the A-bomb away from Syria and the rest of the Arab Middle East in the whole Lybian Hollow Mountain plot?


49 posted on 05/25/2004 8:58:29 AM PDT by atomicpossum (I give up! Entropy, you win!)
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To: Physicist
Indeed, much more likely. As for the cell connection, the obvious rationale is that they suspect somebody was listening. That is, they were moving missiles or whatever, and people involved in the shipment communicated by cell. The NKs then think, "ah, so the NSA must have heard them". Sounds like the NKs think it was well aimed covert ops. Doesn't mean it was, incidentally. Paranoids can think whatever they like - even when somebody is out to get them.
50 posted on 05/25/2004 9:03:18 AM PDT by JasonC
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To: DarkWaters
Re #47

The newspaper I refer to is Chosun Ilbo, a S. Korean Daily, which is not an N. Korean newspaper. You must have been mistaken.

51 posted on 05/25/2004 9:03:50 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: Guillermo
Re #48

He once tried to sneak into Japan using a phony passport, ostensibly to go to Disney Land in Japan(Yeah, it is weird.) He got caught by the Japanese authority, and kicked out. He fell out of his father's favor since then. That is the story I heard. However, I am not sure that is the only reason.

52 posted on 05/25/2004 9:08:28 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Pure b.s. cover story. N. Korea is using a highly embarassing failure of a secret operation to rally the people around the government. Will they next claim that it was the "running dog imperialist Yankees" and their "lackeys" that attempted the assassination of their revered Kim Jung-Il? Complete bunk, same old tired lies.


53 posted on 05/25/2004 9:08:46 AM PDT by gandalftb
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To: JasonC
Sounds like the NKs think it was well aimed covert ops.

Boy, would I like to believe that it was! But blowups happen. If we could do that, we could take out Dear Leader.

54 posted on 05/25/2004 9:13:05 AM PDT by Physicist
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To: NeonKnight

Just set the alarm function


55 posted on 05/25/2004 9:32:17 AM PDT by ChefKeith (NASCAR...everything else is just a game!)
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To: nomorelurker
Perhaps the "Dear Leader's" paranoia can be encouraged by the CIA. They could start a rumor that his enemies are also trying to infect him with AIDS by supplying him with diseased hookers from Scandinavia of the type that he seems to prefer. He would then have to swear off sex. Then, begin a whispering campaign that his rice may contain ricin. After some months with no phone, no sex and no food, he should be ready to sign just about any treaty put in front of him.
56 posted on 05/25/2004 9:36:56 AM PDT by finnigan2
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

"They wouldn't have to "conscript" or confiscate the handsets, just turn off the towers. Cell phones always communicate via the a near by tower. Two cell phones a block away won't communicate if there is no tower. (How could they bill you?)"

I don't know anything about the technology here, but can a cell phone alone be used as a transmitting device to communicate directly with a detonator?


57 posted on 05/25/2004 9:39:36 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Mrs. Kim Jong-il ran up, like, you know, this humongous phone bill, understand?, and Kim Jong-il, he's, like, FURIOUS, cuz he told her to STFU and not use her cell phone all the time, see, he may be a dictator but he has to, like, pay his phone bill, know what I mean?, so I hear he pitches a hissy fit, you know, like with panties on his head and everything?, and shuts down, like, all the cell phones in the country, and, like, feeds his wife to the hogs.


58 posted on 05/25/2004 9:40:22 AM PDT by T'wit (Liberal to child: you'll sink into depravity eventually, so do it at home, now, where it's hygienic)
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To: Larry Lucido
I don't know anything about the technology here, but can a cell phone alone be used as a transmitting device to communicate directly with a detonator?

My guess is they use the cell phone as part of the detonator, and merely call it up to detonate, just a guess though.

59 posted on 05/25/2004 10:01:42 AM PDT by X-FID ( ". . . . I'm making steps. . . . I look at an issue. I'm not afraid to run away from it,")
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To: TigerLikesRooster
Yes, he is alive. This is a picture taken on May 22, 2004

Too bad!

60 posted on 05/25/2004 10:03:31 AM PDT by SuziQ
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