N. Korea allows blast site visit.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
N. Korea allows blast site visit.
10
Mon, 09-13-2004 - 10:49am

>"huge, and peculiarly-shaped, cloud"< 


According to BBC news, on TV, it was mushroom shaped. 


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3650702.stm


A British diplomat is to be allowed to visit the site of a huge explosion in North Korea that raised fears of a nuclear test, a British minister says.


The UK's Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell requested acccess to the site during a visit to North Korea.

Pyongyang said the explosion was in fact the demolition of a mountain as part of a huge hydro-electric project.

In an unusual concession, North Korea said Britain's ambassador could visit the site to see for himself.

Mr Rammell, who earlier held talks with the country's foreign minister, Paek Nam-sun, welcomed the offer.







"Having asked the vice foreign minister this morning for our ambassador and other ambassadors to be allowed to visit the scene of the explosion I am very pleased the North Koreans have agreed to the request," Mr Rammell said.


He added that the ambassador, David Slinn, could visit the site as early as Tuesday.

'Peculiar cloud'

The United States and South Korea had already played down suggestions that the explosion, near Yongjo-ri in Yanggang Province, was caused by a nuclear device.

"There was no indication that was a nuclear event of any kind. Exactly what it was, we're not sure," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC television on Sunday.

The blast is said to have happened on Thursday as the Stalinist state celebrated its National Day.

It created what officials in Seoul said was a huge, and peculiarly-shaped, cloud.

The incident and the fears it has provoked around the world are another illustration of the enormous tension between the regime and the international community, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins, in Pyongyang.

North Korea is under international pressure to end all nuclear programmes and disarm.

But so far it has offered only limited concessions during "six-party" international talks involving both Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.

It has not yet committed to attend a fourth round of the talks, which the Chinese, as hosts, wanted to start before the end of this month.

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Mon, 09-13-2004 - 3:37pm
Conventional explosives in sufficient amounts can create the "mushroom cloud" typical of nuclear detonations, and that's likely what happened here. It's happened a few times before, such as when a munitions train here (during Vietnam I think) blew up. Scared a bunch of people who saw it, but it was purely conventional, not nuclear in origin.

~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 09-13-2004 - 4:22pm

Just thought it was strange they didn't have the shape mentioned in the article, but they were specific on the news.


They're making a mole hill out of mountain. ;)

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Mon, 09-13-2004 - 4:26pm
Ugh... now just HOW did I know that was lurking there somewhere... nt
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 09-13-2004 - 4:30pm
Can't control myself at times.
cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 09-15-2004 - 1:21pm
The MOAB which is not atomic or nuclear produces a mushroom cloud as well.

I think if it were a nuclear blast, sensors and satelites would be able to detect this. (I could be wrong, but thought I read about them in JANE's)

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 09-15-2004 - 2:09pm
Remember Chenobyle (s?) there was radiation readings a long way away. I'm sure these could have been detected, had there been any.
cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2004
Wed, 09-15-2004 - 3:54pm
You are all correct, so I'll just clarify. The mushroom cloud is not a unique feature of nuclear weapons. It is created by the high temperatures at location of the blast and the high amount of dust created by the blast (literally, the atmospheric heating causes the dust to be sucked straight up, then it falls back to earth in a more circular (or mushroom-shaped) pattern. Any weapon can cause that effect if the temperature is high enough. Second, yes, we do have satellites and other detection systems that can identify nuclear isotopes. That's how we monitor compliance with the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty (the one that banned atmospheric nuclear tests). This would be why the Adminstration was slow to say anything. It takes time to evaluate the data, and to review the satellite photographs of the site. If the first data in had been positive for nuclear isotopes, we would have been shouting about it. But it was probably negative, and they gave themselves more time to collect more data.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 09-15-2004 - 4:44pm

Hi Jane_afw!


 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Thu, 09-16-2004 - 2:07pm

British Ambassador Visits Blast Site in North Korea.


http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3507331

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Tue, 09-21-2004 - 4:10pm
I recall that, and if I am not mistaken, the reports came out that satelite sensors did pick up on the radiation.