Here are two reports that seem to explain each other:
Digital ChosunilboAnd:
Ryongchon Explosion Eight Times as Great as North Claims
TOKYO -- Japan's Kyodo News, citing numerous diplomatic sources in Vienna, reported Saturday that the force of April 22's train explosion at the North's Ryonchon Station was about that of an earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale, which would have required about 800 tons of TNT -- about eight times that officially announced by North Korea.[…]
The CTBTO said the explosion at Ryongchon was observed using seismological observation stations in Korea, Japan, the United States and Russia. The stations were built to detect nuclear tests.
World TribuneI see.
Report: Syrians, 'equipment' were in N. Korea train blast
Syrian technicians accompanying unknown equipment were killed in the train explosion in North Korea on April 22, according to a report in a Japanese newspaper.A military specialist on Korean affairs revealed that the Syrian technicians were killed in the explosion in Ryongchon in the northwestern part of the country, according to the Sankei Shimbun. The specialist said the Syrians were accompanying "large equipment" and that the damage from the explosion was greatest in the portion of the train they occupied.
The source said North Korean military personnel with protective suits responded to the scene soon after the explosion and removed material only from the Syrians' section of the train.

This story came from a single right-wing paper in Japan and has been repeated for weeks (and how it was "exclusive" to the "World Tribune" [it says so on their web site] is beyond me). Has anyone else reported this? Do we know who the source is? Has the source been corroborated?
Posted by: Ben | May 24, 2004 at 04:28 PM