The Suspected Explosion
The suspected explosion was located near the town of Yongjo-ri (41°19'47"N 127°05'02"E) in the county of Kimhyŏngjik in Ryanggang. This is in a mountainous region, about 1.5 km above sea level. The explosion was about 30 km from the border with China. The area contains several military installations, including munitions factories and a secret underground military base suspected to contain a uranium enrichment plant. The Yongjori Missile Base was 10 km northeast of the explosion.
Early reports said that seismic activity had been detected early on 9 September 2004, and this was correlated with a "strangely shaped cloud", suspected to be a mushroom cloud. Together these would indicate a large explosion. The date, 9 September 2004, the 56th anniversary of the formation of North Korea, was taken as significant; North Korea has a history of making grand military gestures on significant dates. However, the original reports have been contradicted by later reports denying that there was any explosion.
Read more about this topic: Ryanggang Explosion
Famous quotes containing the words suspected and/or explosion:
“The inference is, that God has restated the superiority of the West. God always does like that when a thousand white people surround one dark one. Dark people are always “bad” when they do not admit the Divine Plan like that. A certain Javanese man who sticks up for Indonesian Independence is very lowdown by the papers, and suspected of being a Japanese puppet.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Frau Stöhr ... began to talk about how fascinating it was to cough.... Sneezing was much the same thing. You kept on wanting to sneeze until you simply couldn’t stand it any longer; you looked as if you were tipsy; you drew a couple of breaths, then out it came, and you forgot everything else in the bliss of the sensation. Sometimes the explosion repeated itself two or three times. That was the sort of pleasure life gave you free of charge.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)