The Journal said that Samsung’s internal team was conflicted about how to handle the rapidly escalating Note7 crisis.

Initially, there was internal debate at the company's South Korea headquarters on how to handle the reports of exploding Note7's, with some assuming the reports were no big deal, while others urged swift action. One executive told Samsung that the smartphone was 'becoming increasingly unsaleable'.

Samsung's head of mobile, D.J. Koh, and other company insiders, including J.K. Shin and G.S. Choi, examined X-ray and CT scans of the phone, which appeared to show heat damage to the device's battery.

A laboratory report said scans of some faulty devices showed a protrusion in Note 7 batteries supplied by Samsung SDI, while phones with batteries from another supplier didn’t.

But there was no explanation as to what was causing the bulges and without doing much else Koh and Samsung executive Lee Jae-yong decided that Samsung SDI’s batteries were the source of the trouble and quickly announced its own Note7 recall, rather than wait for more conclusive proof of the cause of the explosions.

Telecoms executives, including a Verizon official, privately pleaded with Samsung to take the Note7 off the market. One executive even told Samsung that the smartphone was "becoming increasingly unsalable."

Finally, Lee called Koh and told him to take the smartphone off the market and kill the phone completely. What is weird though is that Samsung still doesn’t have a conclusive answer for what’s causing some Note 7s to catch fire.