Posted on 09/13/2004 10:46:50 PM PDT by HAL9000
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean and U.S. governments are planning to take additional satellite pictures of the site of last week's explosion in North Korea to verify its exact cause, a South Korean government official said Tuesday.According to the official at South Korea's Ministry of Unification, the cause of the Sept. 9 explosion in the northern province of Yanggang, near the Chinese border, will become clearer once they take more pictures.
The South Korean government said Monday that it has taken several pictures of a mushroom-shaped cloud at the explosion site using its own satellite and delivered copies of the pictures to U.S. intelligence for analysis.
The result of the analysis has yet to come out, but the official said the first pictures are unlikely to show the exact cause of the peculiar-shaped cloud, due to their low resolution.
They now hope to take pictures using a U.S. military satellite, according to the official.
In an unexpected comment by the North's Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun during a visit by British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell Monday, the North said the explosion was part of the construction of hydro-electric power plant.
Both South Korean and U.S. intelligence doubt that the explosion was related to a nuclear test as they have found no evidence, such as radiation, to support this.
They have also, however, questioned the reliability of the North's claim, as the explosion reportedly took place late at night and the North failed to explain the cause of the mushroom-shaped cloud.
South Korea's National Defense Minister said the explosion was not related to a nuclear weapons test, but that the exact cause will only be known when they take additional satellite pictures.
"We (the South Korean and U.S. governments) share the view that it was surely not a nuclear test," Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said. "The North would never carry out a nuclear test near its border with China, and we believe it is not a serious problem if it is not a nuclear test." The defense minister expressed doubts about the North's claim that the explosion was a planned demolition of a mountain during the construction of the power plant.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said the government "is still working to verify" the reliability of the North's claim.
"We cautiously evaluated the situation using all our resources and data collected by our own intelligence," Chung said, adding that the government is also working closely with the United States to share information.
(END)
Maybe it was Kim Chong Dong's (whatever) bean burrito dinner that caused that massive explosion.
Another accident maybe?
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