Ryongchon train blast

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...ery_comp01.htm

Take a look at the before and after photos of Ryongchons (Korea) "fertilizer" explostion. The radius of the blast is listed as 2KM.

Reportedly:
The explosion was caused after an electricity pole was knocked down when an oil tanker hit two train carriages loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer, Xinhua reported, citing Jang. The short circuit ignited the tanker and the chemicals.

The secretive regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appeared at first to have cut international phone lines in an effort to prevent news of the explosion from getting out, Yonhap said on Thursday. Juel said the Red Cross has been unable to contract its workers in the vicinity of Ryongchon by phone.

The accident occurred nine hours after a train carrying Kim home from talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing passed through Ryongchon, Yonhap said. Kim prefers to travel by rail, in an armor-plated train given to his father by Josef Stalin. Kim, 62, has a fear of flying, which may have resulted from a 1976 helicopter crash that seriously injured him, according to press reports.

Then there's this from a Japanese newspaper but I can't verify it:

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=20828


Based on the improbability of the explosions cause (oil car runs into two fertilizer cars, hits electric pole and explodes), and the fact the Kim Jong Il passed through there 9 hours earlier, I have to think there's more to it.

If you credit the imra.org story you could assume that Kim was checking on some imported weapons. Or you could discredit the Syrian link which might raise suspicions about an attempted assasination of Kim gone 9 hours wrong...

Interesting debate fodder either way.