[War & Business] Fertilizer and Bombs

On the 4th (local time), 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the port of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, exploded, turning the Beirut port into ashes.
[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] It is known that the officials of the Gunghwasi, the agency that manufactured gunpowder during the Joseon Dynasty, spent most of their day rummaging through other people's toilets. There were numerous petitions complaining that these officials raided restrooms, causing disturbances in private homes, government offices, and even the royal palace toilets used by the king.

However, the king always pardoned their actions, considering it an unavoidable task necessary for producing the strategic material, gunpowder. What they sought in the toilets was fertilizer containing ammonium nitrate, then called 'yeomcho.' During the Joseon period, ashes were sprinkled over human waste in toilets to make fertilizer, from which small amounts of ammonium nitrate could be extracted. Although refining a single sack of fertilizer yielded only about a bowl-sized amount of ammonium nitrate, this was purified and mixed with charcoal and sulfur to produce gunpowder and various explosives used in warfare.

Since the 20th century, when chemical fertilizers began to be manufactured, fertilizer factories themselves were treated as military facilities for producing military explosives. The Japanese colonial government established the Chosun Nitrogen Fertilizer Company in 1927 in Heungnam, South Hamgyong Province, as a measure to mass-produce gunpowder aimed at invading Manchuria. Toward the end of the war, it is known that uranium for nuclear development was also extracted from this fertilizer factory, and after World War II, there were reports that it was used in North Korea's nuclear development as well.

Fertilizers, which are easily diverted for explosives, were designated as strategic materials that individuals could not export or import without permission around the time of World War II. In the United States, if someone who is not a farmer suddenly purchases a large amount of fertilizer, they become a subject of investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This was because, after the 1995 bombing of the federal government building in Oklahoma City, where the terrorists used bombs made from more than 2 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, identity checks on fertilizer buyers were strengthened.

Despite being such a dangerous substance, incidents and accidents caused by safety negligence have never ceased. In fact, larger accidents have occurred compared to explosives like nitroglycerin, which easily explodes in hot weather, or sodium, which is dangerous when it comes into contact with water. Large explosions causing many casualties occurred in the 2015 fire at a fertilizer warehouse in Tianjin Port and the 2013 fire at a fertilizer plant in Texas, USA. These accidents happened because ammonium nitrate was treated lightly as fertilizer rather than a dangerous explosive.

Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is relatively stable and does not easily explode unless exposed to very intense flames. As a result, management tends to be lax, and it is often left unattended for long periods. This complacent safety negligence opened the door to a catastrophic disaster that reduced a city once called the "Paris of the Middle East" to ashes in just one minute.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.