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.
OH Man Kim is scare do you remember Kim went underground after we gave Saddam his pink slip
Remember that I don't think was assination attempt was Kim left the station long time ago
----cricketts-----
That's about what I expected.
Ping!
The news here where I live was that Kim Jong Il was dead only a few minutes after the explosion took place. A couple South Korean 'diplomats' here broke the news.
There was talk a few days earlier in the 'diplomatic community' here that operatives were shadowing him as soon as he crossed the border into China and that he was 'in the crosshairs'. China advised Western diplomats that there would be 'serious consequences' if he was so much as touched 'while in China'.
This was interpretted as a green light to hit him as soon as he crossed the border back into North Korea. In any event it was a failure.
My thoughts also. (Although, I can certainly understand why someone would want to assassinate Kim Jong Il...)
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