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Bigger boom than Kimchee admits
Via the Prof:Ryongchon Explosion Eight Times as Great as North Claims Japanâs Kyodo News, citing numerous diplomatic sources in Vienna, reported Saturday that the force of April 22âs train explosion at the Northâs Ryonchon Station was about that of an earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale, which would have required about 800 tons of TNT -- about eight times that officially announced by North Korea. The sources referred to earthquake figures gotten by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. The Northâs official Korean Central News Agency had previously reported that the destructive power of the blast was that of 100 tons of dynamite, and explained that the accident was caused by "the electrical contact caused by carelessness during the shunting of wagons loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer and tank wagons". The CTBTO feels that the cause of the explosion may differ from the Northâs explanation, and noted the explosion might have been caused by highly-explosive materials like military-use fuel going off. Officials at the CTBTO plan to look into the causes of the accident. The CTBTO said the explosion at Ryongchon was observed using seismological observation stations in Korea, Japan, the United States and Russia. The stations were built to detect nuclear tests. In Japanâ case, seismological observation stations in Nagano, Oita and Okinawa picked up the Ryongchon blast. The CTBTO collected data from various observation posts, analyzed the data at its International Data Center and estimated the size of the blast. About a week after the explosion, it provided the data to CTBT member states. The CTBT, written in 1996, has to be ratified by all its signatories for it to be effective, but 44 nuclear and potentially-nuclear states like the United States, China, Pakistan, India and North Korea have put off ratifying the document, which is now on the verge of collapse. Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-05-17 |
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