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Large Explosion Reported in Nothern DPRK

 
 
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:00 pm
I've just heard this report. Apparently the explosion occurred on Thursday, Sept. 9th. A large mushroom cloud is reported, though no other details were mentioned that might indicate a nuclear blast. The area where the explosion occurred is near a place where DPRK has an advanced missile complex.

A few of you also have good sources for this sort of information. I'll be looking for further details with great interest. Anything you can find that isn't classified would be appreciated.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 2,379 • Replies: 27
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littlek
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:05 pm
What is DPRK?
0 Replies
 
husker
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:08 pm
littlek wrote:
What is DPRK?

Democratic Peoples Repunlic of Korea
0 Replies
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:09 pm
Ok, for us dummies, is that north or south?
0 Replies
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:11 pm
I guess I know, I think I read there was talk of disabling the north facilities.

Let me say I am displeased.
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husker
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:19 pm
north
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littlek
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:20 pm
A link from VOA:

link

and from reuters:

link
0 Replies
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:27 pm
Well, this'll be nice for all the people within the cloud's floating power. Including possibly me, since I gather that here on the western us coast we get pollution from china.

Good grief, I can't believe it.
Not to mention, election close.
Of course, I don't know that we did it, just guessing.
0 Replies
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:32 pm
Ah, I see I might have jumped to conclusions.

In which case I am madder at them, if they set it off.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:40 pm
Bookmarking ....
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sat 11 Sep, 2004 11:55 pm
Well, yes, Osso - the US and Britain and France stopped testing in other folk's backyards - specifically the South Pacific's - a few years back - a good position in time to be disapproving of North Korea's activities.....

Not that I approve of ANYONE testing the damn things...
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 12:18 am
As longtimers on a2k know, my dad was head of photo for the bikini bomb tests.
I heard Teller speak, at, of all places, the Newman Club at UCLA, probably 1961?, never mind speak, there were just a few of us, I think, six of us including him. I took the bus...

Would that I were a swifter person with that opportunty, then.

Sure, I am emotionally against bombs. I suppose I could rack up some data against their use too.

I think bombs are stupid, multiply stupid, even the smart ones.
0 Replies
 
Asherman
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 12:18 am
There is no evidence yet (other than the size of the explosion and the "mushroom cloud") that this was an atomic test. Early reports are that the cloud was very large, and that there is a crater visible from satellite surveillance systems. Very large conventional explosives also can result in "mushroom clouds", so that isn't conclusive. No reports of radioactive markers at this time.

The explosion may have been an accident, but for it to have occurred on Sept. 9th seems a bit too coincidental. The location is near the site where the DPRK has been working to develop its longest range missiles, but again that may be coincidental.

There have been indications in recent weeks that DPRK might be getting to conduct an atomic test. Most analysts have expected any such test to be conducted outside the DPRK, probably in Iran. The problem with testing inside the DPRK is that they haven't any suitable testing grounds. Initial tests are generally conducted underground to contain radiation and blast effects. Alternatively, test blasts are from towers in the middle of wide deserts where accurate measurements can be made without endangering local populations. Balloon suspended tests have been experimented with by the US, but there is some doubt that the DPRK would try that method. Underground testing would be extremely foolish in the DPRK where residuals would quickly find their way into the artesian waters. The resulting contamination would be an ecological disaster to the DPRK, and probably ROK as well. If this was a nuclear test, a lot of people will be surprised that Kim would take such a risk.

We should know pretty quickly if any nuclear test markers exist, though the information might be classified. Still, this is the sort of report that is guaranteed to get my undivided attention.

BTW, if the US carried out an attack on DPRK nuclear assets, we wouldn't likely be using a nuclear warhead. We have better and less sensitive means of destroying most targets. This explosion is either a test of some sort, or an accident. It probably is non-nuclear, but there are some aspects that are disturbing about it. Until we know what the sniffers find, all we can do is wait and listen.
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 12:24 am
Yeh, me too.
0 Replies
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 12:29 am
Dlowan, are you saying n. korea deserves its chance to test?
I can see that re any government needing the freedom to... relative to any other, but I don't want the others to either.

I guess I am really rad, I don't want anyone one to test.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 12:36 am
Quote:
South Korean Unification Minister: The Explosion in North Korea Is Unlikely Due to Nuclear Experiments

12 September 2004 | 09:11 | FOCUS News

Seoul. - The huge explosion that rocked North Korea near the border with China three days ago is unlikely due to experiments with atomic weapon, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young told journalists after a National Security Council meeting, Reuters reported. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports that the authorities in South Korea investigate the circumstances. According to Minister Chung Dong-Young, the explosion blasted not far away of a North Korean Rocket Base.
U.S. representative stated earlier that it is still not clear what had happened in North Korea and supposed that there could be many possible explanations of what happened.
Source

And reuters/yahoo reports a little bit later [=10 mins ago]
Quote:
Sunday September 12, 07:25 AM

No tremors reported after North Korea blast
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea has not detected any earth tremors after a huge explosion in North Korea three days ago.

U.S. and South Korean officials say the explosion was unlikely to have been a nuclear weapons test despite a report by Yonhap news agency that the blast produced a mushroom cloud.

"No earthquake data from North Korea was received, whether caused by natural reasons or artificial explosions such as nuclear tests," a weather official said by telephone on Sunday.
Source
0 Replies
 
timberlandko
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 12:42 am
No Siesmic Activity recorded for the area 09/07 through 09/11 ... pretty much can't set off a nuke without gettin' the attention of whole flocks of geologists. A really big conventional high-velocity explosion oughtta have registered too ... but there is no indication of one in the neighborhood for the timeframe. No mention of flash or heat signature picked up by surveilance sattelites which have no other purpose to warch for such, and no indication of radiation. DPRK has a missle-launch facillity thereabouts, as I recall. A few hundred tons of rocket fuel and oxidant would generate a huge smoke plume without creating much of a shockwave, and could cause some significant cratering if the event took a few minutes. I'm guessin' that if it was real, it was neither intentional nor was it a nuke. I suspect they've had another accident, something like the train explosion back in April.
0 Replies
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 12:53 am
OK.

I can't say, ok, good, this is a worry too, might be horrible for them.
0 Replies
 
dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 01:01 am
ossobuco wrote:
Dlowan, are you saying n. korea deserves its chance to test?
I can see that re any government needing the freedom to... relative to any other, but I don't want the others to either.

I guess I am really rad, I don't want anyone one to test.


Lol!

What sticks in my craw is the blithe assumption that the west and the USSR have had the right to test what they will and that nukes are safe in their hands - and that other countries are "rogues" for doing the same, and "we" have the right to bully and attack them if they try. I think that smug assumption is outrageous and racist.

Well, as we know, the USA would have been the only country to have 'em, of course, if it had had its druthers.....

That being said, apart from the USA, no country has used them in anger - though areas like mine have been used as test sites because we had no way of stopping it - (or, as in Australia and South Australia in the fifties, our government actually slavishly WELCOMED Britain in to do their atmospheric tests in my back yard - carelessly removing a whole Aboriginal community from their lands, poisoning that land forever, not even expecting Britain to clean up the site and at least stabilize the plutonium until decades, and millions of dollars, later and getting Adelaide gloriously irradiated because of a wind change when my generation were in their cots....) - and I think the more, and the more unstable the regime, the worser.

North Korea is NOT a stable and reasonable regime, I believe.

So - my feelings are complex.

There is also a small, somewhat evil, part of me that feels a little avenged that the USA and the USSR are experiencing a little of what it feels like to have other people engaged in pissing contests that could, if they go wrong, all but destroy you and the planet - and not to have a say or any power to affect or stop it - but to live in fear of it.

That is a VERY small part though....



I guess we will know soon enough whether it is a nuke.
0 Replies
 
dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Sep, 2004 01:02 am
ossobuco wrote:
OK.

I can't say, ok, good, this is a worry too, might be horrible for them.


Life is pretty horrible for the people of that country, sadly.

Sigh...

Sad to see nukes being paid for when folk are starving, quite apart from anything else.
0 Replies
 
 

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