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November 07, 2009
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| North Korea has built Soviet-style apartment complexes to give a face-lift to its border town of Ryongchon where a devastating 2004 explosion occurred, according to a satellite image compiled by a U.S. researcher. The April 22 blast in the rural northwestern town near China took place several hours after leader Kim Jong-il passed through its railway station, fueling suspicions that the incident may have been an assassination attempt. Kim was returning from a surprise trip to China when the Ryongchon tragedy occurred. The North announced days later that highly explosive ammonium-nitrate fertilizer at the station had accidentally hit an electric cable, triggering the explosion that killed 160 people and injured 1,300. “In 2004, much of the town of Ryongchon was tragically destroyed in a large explosion,” wrote Curtis Melvin, a George Mason University doctoral student who runs one of the most extensive blogs on the economy and geography of the communist country. According to the satellite image compiled by Melvin that was viewed by the Yonhap News Agency on Friday, Ryongchon has since transformed from ashes into a modern town. “Gone are the traditional homes,” Melvin wrote. “They have been replaced by typical Soviet-style apartment blocks.” Melvin did not reveal the source of the new overlay, but said in a separate posting that he merges up-to-date Google Earth images with help from people with access to information on the North. An e-mail requesting an interview was not immediately answered. Melvin, who studies economics, has visited North Korea earlier this decade, and been featured by international media for his efforts to “uncover” the secretive North through satellite images and private photos. Last August, Melvin released a satellite photo of a mansion that he said belongs to Kim Jong-il, the 67-year-old dictator. Yonhap |
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