Train blast mystery deepening

[maddezmom]

Train blast mystery deepening

N. Korean disaster may have been assassination bid, observers say



By DOUG SAUNDERS
From Thursday's Globe and Mail


The railway explosion that killed more than 160 people, injured 1,300 and destroyed more than 8,000 homes in North Korea last week remains deeply shrouded in mystery, leading some observers to speculate that it was something other than a freak accident.

~snip~

The blast occurred nine hours after North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and his private train passed through the site, near the Chinese border. Mr. Kim has made no statements or public appearances since.

Rail-transport experts said yesterday that while ammonium nitrate is considered an explosive material and is a component in bomb construction, such rail-borne explosions are extremely rare and are considered highly unlikely when standard fertilizer is transported using conventional methods. To become highly explosive, it generally has to be mixed with other chemicals.

~snip~

James Lilley, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and China, speculated this week that the disaster may have been an assassination attempt. He said groups opposed to Mr. Kim "realize the system depends so much on him and the system is so bad and punitive that some people could have just taken the situation into their own hands."

Mr. Kim travels almost exclusively by train and makes frequent visits to China. North Korean defectors say that these trips often invite disaster, since the Korean transportation system is expected to come to a halt.
~snip~
more: http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040429.wxnokor29/BNStory/International/

:tinfoilhat:

[buddy22600]

1. bush did it

[DU9598]

2. Agree

My first thought was that this was the work of our White House.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Never mind

[Jack The Tab]

8. No way it was the work of the WH

Pray tell how could any WH, CIA, NSA, Special force operatives ever, EVER do anything in North Korea?

Please, that is the most secretive, closed off country in the world. To think that we could attempt an assassination there is ridiculous.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

9. Did you know that South Korea has a CIA too?

And that the South Korean CIA is VERY closely linked with the US CIA?

[librechik]

5. no, Cheney n/t

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Oh, good grief...

who is this asshole?

Ammonium nitrate is well known to become unstable under certain conditions and accidental explosions are not all that rare. There was a huge one involving two ships in Galveston in 1947, and others in Brooklyn, Germany, England and other places. It's classed as an explosive, and everyone dealing with it knows it needs special handling.

Neither North Korea or China being all that big on maintenance and safety, I can easily imagine a fire starting on that train from something as simple as an ungreased wheel overheating or a derailment.

Sabotage is always a possibility, and I can just as easily see guys like Lilley picking up on rumors and wishful thinking when disasters like this happen.

[teryang]

6. Speculating

It is an intriguing mystery. Certainly, no one in N. Korea wants to admit that a threat on Kims regime could even take place. From their point of view it has to be an accident.

The current stand off in negotiations concerning N. Korea is the biggest crisis there since the early nineties.

Rail sabotage has a history in great power competition for control of the peninsula.

The timing of the accident is suspect with Cheney having just visited the region and threatened to destroy the northern regime among others in so many words.

The timing of the accident is suspect with Kim having been out of the country.

The proximity of the diaster area to the border region suggests the possibility of outside interference.

The most likely explanation for explosions in Korea is accidental because the people there have a poor concept of industrial safety and foreseeability. Their safety practices are appalling.

The size of the blast zone leads me to suspect it wasn't an accident.

Any of the powers in the area arguably would benefit from Kim's death. Ironically, if America were behind this it would be a serious miscalculation (from the defense contractor/neo con view) as we would ultimately lose the most influence in Asia as a result of such a development. As most military age Americans are conspicuous and can't move independently in North Asia their direct involvement is highly unlikely. China and South Korea would benefit the most, with Japan and the US losing significant relative power.

The commentary from various intelligence sources from the outset on the whys and wherefores is interesting. Usually you hear nothing from these sources. Lilley is experienced and well informed on Asian affairs whatever his politics may be.

[Just Me]

7. Yes. At the very least, the spectacle was/is suspicious.

The mass destruction alone stirs my suspicion.

[DivinBreuvage]

10. PROOF that certain "foreign elements" were behind it!

The job was horribly botched, killing thousands of innocent people, causing untold $$$ worth of damage, and completely failing to meet the goal it was supposed to accomplish.

[Just Me]

11. Hee hee hee,...

,...funny! :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

12. Why would anyone be reminded of THIS story we just heard recently?

CIA slipped bugs to Soviets
Memoir recounts Cold War technological sabotageBy David E. Hoffman

Updated: 12:13 a.m. ET Feb. 27, 2004In January 1982, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official.

Thomas C. Reed, a former Air Force secretary who was serving in the National Security Council at the time, describes the episode in "At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War," to be published next month by Ballantine Books. Reed writes that the pipeline explosion was just one example of "cold-eyed economic warfare" against the Soviet Union that the CIA carried out under Director William J. Casey during the final years of the Cold War.

At the time, the United States was attempting to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas. There were also signs that the Soviets were trying to steal a wide variety of Western technology. Then, a KGB insider revealed the specific shopping list and the CIA slipped the flawed software to the Soviets in a way they would not detect it.

'Programmed to go haywire'
"In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds," Reed writes.
(snip/...)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4394002/

The general tone around, it seems, was a sense of real pride in having blown it up, self-satisfaction, in having precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union (in their own minds) and WINNING the Cold War. That's what seemed to be coming through loud and clear in tv news reports.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enjoyed posts from DevilsAdvocateNZ and FreedomFrog above. I also think it would be unlikely to imagine anyone spotting CIA people swaggering around conspicuously in N. Korea, and that it would have benefited them to somehow attempt to blend in, even if it meant using S. Korean agents, if they had hoped to pull off this horrendous explosion guaranteed to scare the holy hell out of the country.

[Just Me]

13. Yeah,...and these guys make Reagan seem almost tepid.

Moreover, this administration is composed of the most radical members of the Reagan administration. It's really scary, sometimes, to even allow myself to imagine what these freon neocons are capable of doing.