Posted on 06/14/2004 5:05:29 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
North Korea train explosion meant for Kim Jong Il
The World Today - Monday, 14 June , 2004 12:18:00
Reporter: Mark Simkin
ELEANOR HALL: A report from Pyongyang suggests that April's deadly train explosion was in fact an assassination attempt on North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il.
More than one hundred people died and thousands were injured in disaster. At the time, the communist country said the blast was caused by electrical cables accidentally coming in contact with ammonium nitrate.
It's thought that Kim Jong Il's train passed through the site just a few hours before the explosion.
Joining me now is our North Asian correspondent, Mark Simkin.
Mark, just how credible is this new claim that the blast was in fact an assassination attempt?
MARK SIMKIN: Well, when it comes to North Korea, the truth is always very hard to find and very hard to know when you find it. You may remember that it took the official media there several days to even admit this explosion happened, even though everyone else in the world was reporting it.
This latest claim was carried in a British newspaper and written by one of its journalists who actually was in Pyongyang and he said that North Korean officials do believe it's likely, not certain, but likely, that the explosion was an assassination attempt and that a mobile phone was used to trigger the blast.
And that the North Korean officials have actually found the remains of a mobile phone, with adhesive tape, with sticky tape or something on it, at the scene.
Now, interestingly and what does give this some credibility is that this mirrors a report by South Korea that was written late last month by a very credible journalist, I know this gentleman personally, he has very good contacts with North Korea.
And his article suggested that the North Koreans state safety and security agency had also concluded that this was an assassination attempt, that rebellious forces were involved and indeed a mobile phone was supposedly used.
ELEANOR HALL: Mark, is there any suggestion of who the mobile phone belonged to, who indeed it was behind this assassination attempt?
MARK SIMKIN: Well, no one?there hasn't been any suggestion about that, but you have to assume if there was an assassination attempt it was people very high up in North Korea.
Kim Jong Il is notoriously concerned about his safety, he only travels by train because ironically of safety concerns. He changes his timetable regularly and indeed this is presumably what saved him in this circumstance, because he moved through earlier than expected.
But whoever was responsible for this, if indeed it was an assassination attempt, had to know that Kim Jong Il was travelling on this day and via this route. They had to have access to a mobile phone, which is not easy in North Korea, they had to have access to the ammonium nitrate.
It was a huge logistical effort to do this. It wasn't a lone gunman. This was a major logistical effort and presumably therefore, we're not talking about disgruntled farmers or people who are dying of starvation in the North Korean countryside, but rather people high up in the North Korean regime or military.
ELEANOR HALL: Also people prepared to kill a lot of civilians in order to assassinate the President.
MARK SIMKIN: Absolutely, if indeed this is what was going on. It's certainly a dramatic way to attempt to assassinate Kim Jong Il. You would have thought there would be more direct means.
But then again, this is a man who is notoriously secretive and it's not easy to get at him, so perhaps if you wanted to kill Kim, as it were, a blast of this magnitude is the only way to really attempt it.
ELEANOR HALL: You've been in North Korea, Mark, can you see signs of dissent?
MARK SIMKIN: No, you can't Eleanor. There is absolutely no sign of dissent in North Korea. No graffiti, no posters, no opposition parties, no criticisms on the state controlled media. There is nothing but adulation for Kim Jong Il.
When you talk to people there, the only people you can talk to?or when you talk to people you're always in the presence of a minder and all they will ever say, and this is the people you're talking to, is that Kim Jong Il is the dear leader and the saviour of the nation and all the usual propaganda.
So, at one hand, that's all you ever hear and see in North Korea. On the other, though, you never actually know what people really think, because they know if they actually expressed any dissent they'd be hauled off to a concentration camp. So you certainly don't see dissent, whether it's there or not is a more difficult question to answer.
ELEANOR HALL: Mark Simkin, our North Asia Correspondent, thank you.
North Korean Security Believes Ryongchon Explosion an Assassination Attempt(Cellphones now banned)
Ping!
This should surprise no one. Don't you remember the immediate news blackout afterward?
Ping!
Better luck next time, whoever.
I'm so shocked. Not.
I simply do not believe this story. It's probably being promulgated by Jong himself.
I don't either.
Recall recent reports of Syrian chem/bio technicians killed in the blast.
I think the assassination angle is a smokescreen to hide the WMD story.
"The third report on the assassination angel..."
It's too bad it wasn't an assassination Angel, N Korea would be much better off if it had been successful. If someone does get him, assassination angel would be a perfect description.
That's what I am thinking as well. This is definitely a smoke screen.
I feel as you do.
Thanks for the ping, Tiger
Also pretty amazing that the North Koreans allegedly find the remains of the detonator in a blast that obliterated multi-ton rail cars. Better yet, watch the DPRK "trace" the phone to the U.S. or South Korea. If this story has any official backing, it will likely evolve into another U.S.-led conspiracy against the "Great Leader."
In the gulag known as North Korea, carrying out this sort of plot would have required extensive planning, coordination, and bribery, to access explosives, build detonators, place the bomb on the tracks, and time it so Kim's train is passing by when it explodes. The odds of such a plan reaching fruition are almost nil; the DPRK is a nation of informants, and you never know who might pass your name to the authorities.
One more thing: if Kim Jong-il had the slightest inclination that someone was trying to kill him, we would be getting word of wholesale arrests and "special" security measures around Pyongyang. So far, that hasn't happened.
The "assassination plot" is a convenient smoke screen to throw everyone off the trail of those Syrian technicians, and the train's mysterious cargo. Their presence--and that cargo--is the real story, not this alleged assassination plot. And, for what it's worth, no credible intelligence organization is putting nay stock in the assassination angle....
But a couple of threads back you advanced what I thought was a novel and brilliant theory that this assassination attempt may have been done by one of Kim Jong-il's sons.
I think this would be the perfect opportunity for you to share that theory with us again. Which son, why would he do it, and what power did he wield that could aid him in such an attempt?
--Boot Hill
Why couldn't they both be true?
--Boot Hill
LOL, would you care to share with us just which "credible intelligence organizations" are sharing their most intimate secrets with you?
--Boot Hill
Yes!
..........where the train enters the tunnel and all the passengers are gassed and die, due to the negligence of the railroad workers, who in turn were so beaten down by the 'Collectivist' society that no one cared about their jobs anymore.........resulting in the devastating accident.
JMHO
Moreover, if it was an assassination plot that required "extensive planning, coordination, and bribery, to access explosive, build detonators and place the bomb on the tracks", wouldn't there also have been arrangements to explode the bomb at the proper moment -- rather than three hours too late?
We probably won't see him until the next Ground Hog Day.
Yeah, he will turn into a ground hog by then.:)
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