It wasn’t the whole country that blew up, but something big exploded in northern North Korea near the China border on Thursday. News is just filtering out to the world now with reports saying there was a 3-4 km mushroom cloud spotted and a crater visible on satellite photos.
Thursday was North Korea’s 56th anniversary of founding. Did they detonate a nuclear bomb to celebrate?
Yonhap news agency has the most detailed report I’ve found so far:
Mushroom Cloud Spotted at North Korean Border: Sources
A reliable source in Seoul’s diplomatic community said Sunday that a mushroom cloud with a radius of 3.5 to 4 kilometers was spotted, along with a massive explosion, in Kimhyongjik County in North Korea’s northernmost inland province of Yanggang on Sept. 9.
“The Sept. 9 explosion occurred at around 11 a.m.,” the source said. “But it is not clear yet whether the explosion is related to an intentional nuclear experiment or a simple accident.” He noted that the site of the explosion and mushroom cloud is not far from the North’s Daepodong missile base.
Similar reports are coming from Beijing sources, but some are saying that the blast occurred in the south, near the DMZ. Others claim that large expanses of smoke indicate a forest fire.
There’s a lot of confusion, significant delays in reporting and not a lot of clear facts. Typical for N. Korean news. How very 19th century…
