Up to 3,000 Casualties in N.Korea Rail Blast-Report

[Uncle Sam]

http://www.*******.com


SEOUL (*******) - Up to 3,000 people were killed or injured in a huge explosion on Thursday when two goods trains collided in a North Korean station hours after leader Kim Jong-il had passed through, South Korea's YTN television station said.

Yonhap news agency also said there were thousands of casualties. Both Yonhap and YTN did not give a breakdown of deaths and injuries.

[Uncle Sam]

More...


SEOUL (*******) - Up to 3,000 people were killed or injured when two trains loaded with fuel collided and exploded at a North Korean station Thursday, hours after leader Kim Jong-il had passed through, South Korea's YTN television said.

YTN quoted witnesses in its report while South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which spoke of widespread destruction, also said there were thousands of casualties. Neither Yonhap nor YTN gave a breakdown of deaths and injuries.

Yonhap quoted sources in the Chinese city of Dandong that borders the North as saying the explosion occurred around 1 p.m. -- nine hours after Kim's special train was reported to have passed on its way back to Pyongyang after a visit to China.

"The station was destroyed as if hit by a bombardment and debris flew high into the sky," Yonhap said, quoting the unidentified Chinese sources.

The sources said cargo trains carrying gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas collided at Ryonchon station 30 miles south of the border.

Yonhap also quoted a senior Defense Ministry official as saying the South's military -- which eavesdrops on North Korea -- had heard about the blast through "intelligence channels directed against the North."

There was no immediate suggestion the blast was anything other than an accident. But the explosion came after Kim met China's new leadership during a rare foreign visit to discuss the North's nuclear weapons plans and tentative economic reforms.

North Korea appears to have cut international telephone lines to the area to prevent information about the explosion getting out, Yonhap added. The North appears to have declared a type of emergency in the area.

"We have not yet received official information on the accident. We are trying to confirm the report," a Unification Ministry spokesman said in Seoul. Other officials at various government agencies also had no information.

Yonhap said the sources said people in Dandong were concerned their friends or relatives could have been caught up on the explosion. Traders from both sides criss-cross the border area.

A railway worker on the Chinese side of the Dandong border crossing told ******* he had not heard of a blast and had seen no signs of any emergency effort under way.

"The closest station to here in North Korea is in Sinuiju (on the border), and I would have heard it. But I didn't hear anything," he said by telephone.

North Korea's official media broke their silence on Kim's three-day trip to Beijing Thursday -- strongly suggesting Kim was safely back in Pyongyang -- but did not mention the explosion. Kim does not travel by air when he does venture outside North Korea.

Residents in Pyongyang said by telephone there was nothing unusual in the capital. North Korean television was broadcasting military songs and music -- standard evening fare.

[Uninen]

Damn..... :|

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

This is the dirty work of imperialist dogs and swine.

[ronin2172]

don't let uninen see this...it has america's fingerprints all over it!

seriously that's fuc*ed up, is North Korea so proud they can't admit when a disaster happens? I don't see what they have to gain or lose by covering things up......

[ShotOver]

Hrmm.. *waits for someone to scream assassination attempt*

But yeah, too bad he had left the Area, R.I.P to the innocent people.

[Salty Dog]

they used chemical weapons on their own people, and said that it was a train crash.

[mack pl]

RIP :(

[Ian H]

Not good, RIP to the poor sods.

[Uninen]

they used chemical weapons on their own people, and said that it was a train crash.

Maybe not used, but how about a leak of chemical agent from trail transport car? I mean its kinda hard to belive that there would be 3000 people in that train or station in North Korea.....

Or option nro.2 it was actually Kim and Kims train with all of his staff that was blown up by sabotage that was directed against some fuel transport train, that happened to be near side by side with Kims.....

And now with the phone lines cut and **** North Korean generals are busy making up lies about Kim leaving for long adventure to Himalayas....

And of course they dont "know" when his comming back.....

:P

[Salty Dog]

what if?.......man you just don't know

[Jack Mehoff]

damn

[n.ignomo]

Dman North Corea leaders ! I wish they had no nukes.

[Uninen]

what if?.......man you just don't know

Its North Korea, ill recon well never learn the real truth...

I mean when they "succeed" in something then they would tell, but if **** hits the fan they wont mention it with a single word....

Just look at Chernobyl (which USSR tryed to keep as secret) and also there was this Anthrax outbreak from some weapons lab, killed more than 80.. (that also they tryed to hide...)

[n.ignomo]

Many coutries have been very close to a major nuclear accident ! But this technology is only for highly skilled countries or those who rent foreign technicians.

[Uninen]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/04/22/nkorea.train/index.html

Many casualties in NK train crash

(CNN) -- Two trains carrying flammable materials have exploded in a North Korean train station, leaving a large number of casualties, South Korean media reported.

North Korea declared a state of emergency after Thursday's explosion, The Associated Press quoted South Korea's Yonhap news agency as reporting.

Witnesses said the explosion was the result of a collision between the trains at Ryongchon station, South Korean media reported.

Just hours earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had passed through the station on a return trip from China, South Korean news network YTN said.

Ryongchon is northwest of the North Korean capital Pyongyang and about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the country's border with China.

Yonhap, quoting unidentified sources in the Chinese city of Dandong, said the trains were carrying oil and/or liquefied petroleum gas.

The incident happened about 1 p.m. local time, Yonhap said.



"The area around Ryongchon station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded," Yonhap quoted witnesses as saying, AP said.

"Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuju," a North Korean town on the border with China, AP quoted the agency as saying.

Yonhap's report of the state-of-emergency declaration gave no details.

Yonhap said officials of the secretive North Korean government had put in place a "type of state of emergency" around the town of Ryongchon near the Chinese border.

[Uninen]

Many coutries have be very close to a major nuclear accident ! But this technology is only for highly skilled countries or those who rent foreign technicians.

Yeah, there has been some serious accidents, even in UK and US. :|

[FallenAngel]

I smell bull****.

I agree that this is a cover-up for something else...bigger.

Unless all 3000 people were standing in the station, that'd have to be one HELL of an explosion.

[n.ignomo]

Maybe you saw the vid showing a truck full of oil exploding near a gas station? Now you make a train of 50 at least as big as a truck and you imagine the fact.

[FallenAngel]

Maybe you saw the vid showing a truck full of oil exploding near a gas station? Now you make a train of 50 at least as big as a truck and you imagine the fact.

Still, such an explosion would vaporize the gas station and maybe the immediately ajoiing buildings, but that wouldn't have killed 3000 people either. And it's highly unlikily that ALL the tanks on the train exploded.

[n.ignomo]

Anyway, it could be 50 deads and 2500 wounded (a big number though). The blast is very destructive....north korea > will journalists ever be able to report from there ?

[Nizark]

How in the fock does 3000 people die in a train crash? Jesus...what a day

[MK133]

How in the fock does 3000 people die in a train crash? Jesus...what a day


LOL! :lol:

Seriously, I don't trust those people, bet they had a bump with a nuke or some damb thing.

I did here that the fuel was pressurized liquefied petroleum gas, that apparently can cause a big ass blast!

we'll know eventually

[Fintin]

if the trians were both filled with explosive material....it would be one hell of a blast....taking out the station, and probly a good chunk around it too...that is if the trians are as long there as they are in the states...car size and other things....but it could be equivilent to a small nuke going off....::starts dooms day freaks going:: maybe it was a small nuke.....

[Fox2]

"Casualty" does not mean "fatality."

[Jack Mehoff]

I'm having a hard time to believe that 3000 people perished from that explosion. It's gotta be a big blast, big enough to wipe out a few blocks during rush hour to kill that many people.

[Uncle Sam]

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm19475_20040422.htm


SEOUL, South Korea - Two fuel trains collided and exploded in a North Korean train station near the Chinese border Thursday, according to South Korean media, which reported large numbers of casualties. One television station said 3,000 people were believed killed or injured.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, reportedly had passed through the station as he returned from China nine hours earlier. It was not clear what caused the crash, or if it was related to Kim's journey. The trains were carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas, media reported.

The crash reportedly took place about 1 p.m. in Ryongchon, a town 12 miles from China. North Korean authorities declared a ``state of emergency'' in the area, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

In another sign of the accident's magnitude, the secretive North Korean government cut international phone lines to prevent news of the collision from leaking across its borders, Yonhap said, citing no sources.

The number killed or injured could reach 3,000, South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN, reported, citing unidentified sources on the Chinese side of the border.

``The area around Ryongchon station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded,'' Yonhap quoted witnesses as saying. ``Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuju,'' a North Korean town on the border with China, it said.

Cho Sung-dae, a Yonhap correspondent in Beijing, said his reports were based on Chinese sources in the Chinese border town of Dandong who had talked with their relatives in Ryongchon.

They described a massive explosion involving a large number of casualties but could not give figures, Cho told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Cho also said North Korean authorities appeared to be shutting down the border with China after the incident.

Subsequent attempts by his Chinese sources to contact people in Ryongchon failed because the phone lines had been severed.

North Korea is one of the world's most isolated countries and rarely allows visits by outside journalists. News events within its borders are difficult to confirm independently.

North Korea's state-controlled media is unlikely to provide quick confirmation of such an accident. The communist country's infrastructure is dilapidated and accident-****e. Its passenger trains are usually jam-packed with people, but defectors say they are seldom punctual and frequently break down.

Sometimes, trains are stranded for hours at stations until their electricity supply is restored enabling them to continue on their journey, some defectors say.

YTN, citing an unidentified South Korean government official, said the government in Seoul confirmed a huge explosion in the Ryongchon train station. The official told YTN he believed the incident was an accident, not politically motivated.

Yang Jong-hwa, a spokeswoman of South Korea's Unification Ministry, said her organization could not immediately confirm the reports. The ministry is in charge of relations with North Korea.

The Defense Ministry could not comment, and the Foreign Ministry could immediately be reached.

YTN reported that the casualties included Chinese living in the North Korean border region, and that Chinese in Dandong - a bustling industrial city on Yalu River - were desperate to learn about their relatives.

Some of the injured were evacuated to hospitals in Dandong, it said.

Chinese and North Korean traders frequently cross the border at Dandong.

The accident resembled a disaster in Iran on Feb. 18, when runaway train cars carrying fuel and industrial chemicals derailed in the town Neyshabur, setting off explosions that destroyed five villages. At least 200 people were killed.

North Korea's state-run news agency on Thursday confirmed that Kim made a secretive trip to China on Monday through Wednesday, but carried no comments on the reported explosion.

China, which also confirmed Kim's visit, is North Korea's last major ally, and the two countries' ruling communist parties boast of close ties. But while China's experiments with capitalism have transformed it into an economic dynamo, North Korea suffers chronic food shortages and depends on its larger neighbor for aid.

Kim met with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders and agreed to ``push ahead'' with a peaceful resolution to the standoff over its nuclear weapons programs, the North's official KCNA news agency and central television network reported earlier Thursday.

The broadcast added that Kim said his government ``will continue to be patient and flexible and actively participate in the process of six-nation talks and contribute to making progress at the talks.''

The comments were likely to be encouraging to the United States and other countries, who want China to use its leverage as North Korea's leading supplier of food and energy aid to get the country to disarm.

Washington wants Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear facilities, but North Korea has said it doesn't trust the United States not to invade and wants a security guarantee.

The last round of six-nation talks - involving China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia - ended in February in Beijing without a settlement.

[usa320]

If it was a nuclear, chemical or biological accident covered up, it wont be for long.

Stuff like that is detectable by American U-2's.

[talib_killa34]

Watch this one closely...

Possible pretext for a war now if they start blaming the ROK and US for an "act of sabotage".

You never know. :|

[FRO]

I can believe up to 3000 injured. If its near the Chinese border and is an industrial centre, there's likely to be a fair population living in tight quarters. Further, due to the lack of medical supplie and equipment, people who would die of their injuries in South Korea (or here) will likely end up succumbing to their injuries.

Sad day. If only it had hit Kim Jong Il's train somewhere away from an urban area. Then again, who knows what kind of chaos would erupt then?

Thanks for the news. Take care all.

[SeanAshi]

It's gotta be a big blast, big enough to wipe out a few blocks during rush hour to kill that many people.Rush hour in North Korea is not what it is in the United States, their streets would still be empty, this is going to bug me now I want information and North Korea will not release it, have we Americans been blamed for it yet?

[J-10]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/23/xinsrc_070401230908109112457.jpg
A picture taken on South Korean channel YTN shows flames and smoke near the Ryongchon train station. Some 3,000 people were killed or injured after two trains carrying fuel collided and exploded at a North Korean railway station, reports said.(YTN)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/23/content_1435975.htm

[Nizark]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/23/xinsrc_070401230908109112457.jpg
A picture taken on South Korean channel YTN shows flames and smoke near the Ryongchon train station. Some 3,000 people were killed or injured after two trains carrying fuel collided and exploded at a North Korean railway station, reports said.(YTN)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/23/content_1435975.htm

So let me get this straight....the south koreans were able to get shots of this explosion INSIDE NORTH KOREA?

They might as well show the pic from The Fugitive

[Ichhabe]

Don't worry. There will soon be satelitte-images so outside experts can look in to the damaged area.

[esl]

I saw that the train crash in Iran resulted in 900 casulties of which 1/2 were dead. Add a crowed station and this figure could easly tripple.

[Kilgor]

Watch this one closely...

Possible pretext for a war now if they start blaming the ROK and US for an "act of sabotage".

You never know. :|

Yeah.. thats what I was thinking too.

[Huck Mucus]

Those Axis of Evil folks are having a poor run of luck with trains lately! First Iran, now North Korea. Say, there's one more train wreck I can think of . . . :|

[SeanAshi]

Yeah, there has been some serious accidents, even in UK and USNothing near the magnitude of Chernobyl

[usa320]

http://www.slightlywarped.com/forumpictures/finalword/smells_like_bull****.jpg

http://www.slightlywarped.com/forumpictures/finalword/bsmeter.gif

is that what i think it is....yep....it is...the flag....the flag ITS UP!

http://www.slightlywarped.com/forumpictures/finalword/bsflag.gif

[Ghostwolf]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/23/xinsrc_070401230908109112457.jpg


So let me get this straight....the south koreans were able to get shots of this explosion INSIDE NORTH KOREA?

They might as well show the pic from The Fugitive

That is just a computer generated image of what it would be like at the
actual accident site.

Here's the satellite image of the rail station and the town of Ryongchon before the accident

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/images/ryongchon_ik-br_ann.jpg

and this is after the accident

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40071000/jpg/_40071923_203_satellite.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3651705.stm

[Ichhabe]

Holy Crap!!! 18 hours after the explotion. It looks like the top floor in Dante's Inferno. :(

[Ghostwolf]

Here's another satellite photo showing the rail station and the city of Ryongchon for comparision with the accident photo. I need to find a larger photo of the accident site so I can see better.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20040423/mdf546325.jpg

[J-10]

Here's another satellite photo showing the rail station and the city of Ryongchon for comparision with the accident photo. I need to find a larger photo of the accident site so I can see better.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20040423/mdf546325.jpg

Thank you! nice work.

[ibstolidude]

What a terrible tragedy. So many families must be effeted.

[ibstolidude]

I smell bull****.

I agree that this is a cover-up for something else...bigger.

Unless all 3000 people were standing in the station, that'd have to be one HELL of an explosion.
There was an explosion along the trans-siberian railway years ago. gas line ruptured / leaked filled part of a valley and the electric train passed through and it was a disaster - I will try and find details, I am acting only on memory.

[xjym2002]

[quote=J-10]http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/23/xinsrc_070401230908109112457.jpg

So let me get this straight....the south koreans were able to get shots of this explosion INSIDE NORTH KOREA?

They might as well show the pic from The Fugitive

I guess this is shot from China remotely.

Sure it's a imperialist sabotage. Really bad if Kim deems it's true, if not a pretext of war, at least a pretext of setback on Nuke talk.

RIP to the innocents.

[SeanAshi]

Why don't the North Koreans revolt against Kim Jung Il, they would be slaughtered? myabe but better to die then to live in that society.

[esl]

Those Satellite pics are fascinating, looks like a fire area not a blast zone. The burn area is confinded to railyard and the station. I wonder if some of the 3-4000 casulties are from smoke inhilation in the adjacent town?

[Kilgor]

Tall order in land of short rations
From The Times
April 23, 2004
AMONG the many things for which North Korea is remarkable, it must have the densest concentration of slogans in the world.

"Destroy the aggressors with merciless annihilating blows," counsels one, emblazoned above a Pyongyang highway. "Each Korean must perform selfless feats to glorify the heroic deeds of leader Kim Jong Il," advises a second.

In recent years, however, visitors to Seoul, the South Korean capital, have described the strangest of all.

It is seen in schools, gymnasiums and other places where children gather.

Compared with the usual tone of socialist ferocity, it is direct and almost pleading: "Try to grow taller."

This is the closest thing to an official acknowledgement of one of the hidden catastrophes of North Korea: after a decade of food shortages, and four years of famine, a generation of children have stunted growth.

Those few foreigners allowed to visit or live in the country report the same experience: encountering groups of children several years older than they appear.

Teenagers look like pre-pubescent children. Young soldiers doing their military service look like 14-year-olds.

Even with improved access to food and medical care, many will never regain the growth on which they have lost out.

The situation has consequences for North Korea's national defence, its economy and for any future reunification with South Korea.

Young North Korean defectors to South Korea are often taunted and discriminated against because of their short stature. "It's not that being short is bad in itself -- the problem is the idea of body image in South Korean society," says Pak Sun-young, a South Korean anthropologist who has studied growth-rates among young defectors.

"Tall people are respected here, and North Koreans feel very uncomfortable about being shorter."

Despite great improvements in food distribution since the famine of 1995-99, malnutrition has left 42 per cent of North Koreans stunted, according to the UN World Food Program.

Professor Pak has conducted studies on North Korean defectors in Seoul, and on refugee children living clandestinely in the regions bordering China.

They had escaped the worst privations of a homeland where between a few hundred thousand and a few million people reportedly died of hunger in the late 1990s.

She found 70 per cent of the survivors of the famine were stunted, and 25 per cent underweight. The average 14-year-old boy was 25.4cm shorter than his South Korean counterpart and 19kg lighter. The average 17-year-old was 150cm tall, compared with 170cm in the South.

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's hereditary leader, is reputed to wear platform boots to boost his 157.5cm.

In addition to the exhortatory slogans, North Korean children are encouraged to play basketball, believed to promote growth. In an ironic twist, Lee Myong-hun, the world's tallest player at 232.5cm, is North Korean.

[Pandy]

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/04/22/nkorea.train/top.ryongchon.train.gif

Photo of where in North Korea it was, dosn't look like it's all that far from the border with China. But what got me wondering is, how the **** do you get 3,000 people on a train? :cantbeli:

[iflu]

I smell bull****.

I agree that this is a cover-up for something else...bigger.

Unless all 3000 people were standing in the station, that'd have to be one HELL of an explosion.

yeh, just now i was thinking if there is any proper reason that a TRAFFIC accident happened at 0100 hr would killed so many people, and I realized that if there was a passenger train happened to stop there....it would be a disaster. OR it would be too hard to imagine what a huge blast it was.

[Ghostwolf]

I smelled BS as well, and I am referring to the casualty number of the
accident. North Korea is known to exaggerate numbers and lying for
propaganda purposes, in order to gain international sympathy and most
importantly free food and aid.

Until the casualty number is absolutely and positively confirmed by
another independent source, I am not going to trust anything the DPRK
government sources say.

[SeanAshi]

North Koreans look like starved cats with their skinny faces.

[Uninen]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/04/23/nkorea.train/index.html

(CNN) -- The Red Cross says at least 54 people are dead and more than 1,200 others injured after a train carrying explosives triggered a massive blast in North Korea.

Those numbers are expected to rise dramatically, Beijing-based Red Cross spokesman John Sparrow told CNN on Friday.

Initial reports out of North Korea show that 1,850 homes and 12 public buildings have been completely destroyed by the blast in the town of Ryongchon near the Chinese border.

Meanwhile, more than 6,300 homes have been damaged, Sparrow added.

"There is an enormous amount of destruction and an enormous amount of casualties," he said.

--

That explains alot......

[martinexsquaddie]

initial massive blast from lpg or something going off
followed with a release of some toxic chemical you'd have the effect of
something along the lines of a MOAB going off followed by an chemical attack
easily kill most of the inhabitants of a town :(
plus I doubt NK civil guard have much equipment to deal with something like that
even the US would be pushed to do much in the first hour or so :(

[J-10]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/23/xinsrc_250401231536070294252.jpg

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/23/content_1436330.htm

[Uninen]

:roll:

I cannot see even one single building totally destroyed from that satellite pic.......

And the article says: "A total of 1,850 houses were destroyed, 6,350 houses partly damaged and 12 public buildings were damaged."

[Ghostwolf]

Latest casualty figures

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&e=1&u=/ap/20040423/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_train_explosion

150 Said Dead in N. Korea Train Explosion
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

DANDONG, China - The fearsome picture of devastation from the North Korean train explosions near the Chinese border took shape Friday with initial reports saying 150 were killed, 1,249 injured and 1,850 apartments or houses destroyed.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040422/capt.nyet23104222233.nkorea_train_explosions_nyet231.jpg
AP Photo

North Korea's government said the explosion occurred when train cars carrying dynamite touched power lines, according to Anne O'Mahony, regional director of the Irish aid agency Concern.

"It says 150 people died, including some school children," O'Mahony told Irish radio station RTE by telephone from Pyongyang, the North's capital.

Red Cross spokesman John Sparrow in Beijing said the blast had killed at least 54 people and injured 1,249, but that he expected the toll to rise, citing the massive damage.

The explosion damaged an additional 6,350 apartments or houses, Sparrow said, citing information from Red Cross officials in the North.

"When you look at the number of buildings destroyed, you have to be afraid of what you're going to find," Sparrow said. "We are anticipating that the casualty figures will increase," Sparrow said, citing figures from Red Cross officials in the North.

Concern official Chris Wardle in Pyonygang confirmed the government had told aid workers the death toll was 150.

"We're basically working from information provided earlier today from the government. Various NGOs (non-governmental organizations) will be traveling up there and making assessment tomorrow (Saturday). ... Until that happens, we won't know what really happened there."

"We have been told that the accident was caused by live electrical wire getting in contact with dynamite. The numbers we've been told are 150 dead, 1000-plus injured, and some dead are thought to be schoolchildren, there's a school nearby. And (there is) a figure of 800-plus dwellings destroyed by the blast," Wardle said.

Initial reports by South Korean media said 3,000 people were killed or hurt in the disaster at a railway station in Ryongchon, a bustling town about 90 miles north of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

The secretive North's communist government was silent Friday about the disaster, despite confirmation from the South Korean and Chinese governments.

Reports also varied over what exactly exploded.

"What they've said is that two carriages of a train carrying dynamite — they were trying to disconnect the carriages and link them up to another train," she said. "They got caught in the overhead electric wiring, the dynamite exploded, and that was the cause of the explosion."

Sparrow said the trains were carrying explosives similar to those used in mining. China's Xinhua News Agency reported the blast was blamed on ammonium nitrate — a chemical used in fertilizers — leaking from one train. South Korea's unification minister said the trains were carrying fuel.

The blast leveled the train station, a school and apartments within a 500-yard radius, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting Chinese witnesses. It said there were about 500 passengers and railway officials in the station at the time of the blast.

North Korean officials invited foreign officials to visit the site of the disaster Saturday, O'Mahony said.

Ryongchon is the site of chemical and metalworking plants, and has a reported population of 130,000.

Those injured "will be suffering greatly from ... burns and those types of injuries that leave you traumatized," Sparrow said. He said Red Cross workers in the North were distributing tents and blankets to 4,000 families, while the international group was putting together hospital kits containing antibiotics, bandages and anesthetics.

Hospitals in China near the border were put on "high alert," Sparrow said.

There was no sign in Dandong, the Chinese border city nearest to the crash site, of injured people being brought out of North Korea. But the city's three biggest hospitals were preparing for a possible surge of patients. The city is about 12 miles from Ryongchon.

"We're ready to offer our close neighbor our best medical help anytime," said an official at Dandong Chinese Hospital.

In Seoul, Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said China was urging North Korea to send the injured across the border to hospitals in China. But he said Pyongyang was instead asking China to dispatch relief workers to the scene.

China confirmed the first fatalities Friday afternoon, saying two Chinese were killed and 12 others injured in the disaster. The report by its state-run Xinhua News Agency cited the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang.

Jeong cited only a "large number" of dead and injured.

The European Union said Friday its humanitarian aid representatives would travel to the scene over the weekend to assess how it could help victims of the accident.

European Commission spokesman Jean-Charles Ellerman-Kingombe said EU officials had been invited by the North Korean authorities to go on location on Saturday, two days after the explosion.

North Korea declared an emergency in the area while cutting off international telephone connections to prevent crash details from leaking out, Yonhap reported.

The chief of the South Korean Red Cross is in North Korea on an unrelated business trip and is to evaluate what kind of aid North Korea might need, Jeong said.

The North's official KCNA news agency said in a brief dispatch that the Red Cross official was greeted Friday by North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam. But KCNA still had not mentioned the disaster by Friday.

The international Red Cross plans to launch an international appeal for aid, Sparrow said.

The blast reportedly occurred nine hours after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il passed through the station on his way home from a three-day visit to China. But Jeong said that given the circumstances and the timing of the blast, "I don't think sabotage was involved."

At the time of the blast, an international passenger train carrying many ethnic Chinese was parked in the station, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, without citing sources.

The British Broadcasting Corp. showed on its Web site what it said was a satellite photo taken 18 hours after the reported explosion. The black-and-white photo showed huge clouds of black smoke billowing from the site.

South Korea's acting president, Goh Kun, ordered his government to prepare assistance if necessary, and the country's Red Cross said it was ready to send food and clothes.

Referring to reports of widespread devastation, Goh said at a meeting of his senior staff, "If the report is true, this is a very tragic accident and we relay deep condolences."

[Ichhabe]

I smelled BS as well, and I am referring to the casualty number of the
accident. North Korea is known to exaggerate numbers and lying for
propaganda purposes, in order to gain international sympathy and most
importantly free food and aid.
Until the casualty number is absolutely and positively confirmed by
another independent source, I am not going to trust anything the DPRK
government sources say.

I dont know what news agencies you are used too, but I must honestly say that I am not used too that North Korea release any numbers to get symphaty.

First, this accident was not mentioned yesterday on the NK-news at all.

Second: Earlier, no news were ever released, no matter how many killed.

In the twarped NK-propaganda it is seemed as showing weakness if any is being killed in whatever catastrophy.
How many famine victims have the NK's given out? I don't know, do you?

[shrek]

Old satelite pic just showing the area. Not after the blast.

Ichabe is right, if anything, North Korea will try and hide any kind of mistake that they could have made. We will probably never know the real figure. If you've ever seen how they live over there it's not like there are anything approaching sturdy structures to lessen the effects of a blast that size.

I worked Strategic intel (Asian theatre) during Tianemen (sp?) Square. I guarantee that no one here knows how many people died there. It wasn't a couple of hundred!

This just in, the rumor mill at work is stating that there are murmurings that this may have not been the accident everybody thought it was..?

Hmmmmm

[Ghostwolf]

First, this accident was not mentioned yesterday on the NK-news at all.

Second: Earlier, no news were ever released, no matter how many killed.

In the twarped NK-propaganda it is seemed as showing weakness if any is being killed in whatever catastrophy.
How many famine victims have the NK's given out? I don't know, do you?

But why so open all of the sudden? May be it is a sign that NK is starting to break, even though its propaganda machines function as usual.

As I remember, NK claimed that only several thousands have died during the famine, but the Red Cross estimated that at least 2 million deaths, and it took a rather long time to get this information out of the country.

When this train accident happened, the NK government did ask the International Red Cross and other nations for help, instead of its usual "hush all" policy, despite the fact that NK cut off the phone line link and there was no mention of the accident on the NK government TV.

[oldsoak]

Tragic
:(

[Haiw]

Old satelite pic just showing the area. Not after the blast.

Ichabe is right, if anything, North Korea will try and hide any kind of mistake that they could have made. We will probably never know the real figure. If you've ever seen how they live over there it's not like there are anything approaching sturdy structures to lessen the effects of a blast that size.

I worked Strategic intel (Asian theatre) during Tianemen (sp?) Square. I guarantee that no one here knows how many people died there. It wasn't a couple of hundred!

This just in, the rumor mill at work is stating that there are murmurings that this may have not been the accident everybody thought it was..?

Hmmmmm
I remember hearing something at the news that one of the trains might have been carrying TNT? :|

[Ghostwolf]

Here's a news video showing the rail station before the accident, go HERE (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=1033) and check out the exclusive APTN footage.

I heard that one of the rail cars, which is pack full of high explosives, got in contact with a high tension wire and detonated, and possibly set off other rail cars with explosives and fuel as the result. My guess is that the amount of explosives packed into one of those rail cars will be roughly equivalent to tens(if not hundreds) of MK84 2000 lb. aerial bombs packed together and then set them off at once.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/images/ryongchon_dg_13may03_2.jpg
(Image date: May 13, 2003)

[Uncle Sam]

http://www.*******.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4926488&pageNumber=2


DANDONG, China/SEOUL, South Korea (*******) - North Korea said Friday several hundred people were killed and thousands injured in a train explosion and issued a rare appeal for international help to deal with the disaster.

Britain's Foreign Office quoted North Korean officials putting the death toll at several hundred in the blast that razed part of the town of Ryongchon, near the Chinese border.

"North Korean officials are saying there are several hundred dead and several thousand injured," the Foreign Office spokeswoman told ******* in London.

In Geneva, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it received a request for international help from Pyongyang Friday afternoon.

The request did not go into detail but the appeal was echoed by North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations in New York who said the accident had been "due to carelessness."

"We need the help of the international community -- emergency relief," envoy Pak Gil Yon told ******* Television.

North Korea's media have made no mention of Thursday's blast but the reclusive and impoverished communist state has accepted offers of help from international aid and relief agencies.

Pyongyang rarely reports on accidents and only belatedly sought outside aid after floods and a famine in the 1990s.

The United States, which labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and prewar Iraq, said it was willing to help despite a standoff over Pyongyang's suspected nuclear arms program.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters Washington would weigh information to see if there was a need for the United States to help.

Reliable figures on the number of dead have been scant. The OCHA in Geneva, quoting figures from the Red Cross, said 50 bodies had been recovered from Thursday's blast

The regional director of Concern, a relief agency with an office in Pyongyang, said 150 people had died, including some schoolchildren.
Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang as saying four of its diplomats would go to the blast site Saturday to get a clearer picture of what happened.

International aid agencies have also been invited to visit the scene of the train blast Saturday.

The World Food Program, U.N.'s children's agency UNICEF, the Red Cross and representatives of about 20 nongovernmental organizations will travel to the area to evaluate needs, said spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume in Geneva.

UNICEF said it was already sending enough basic medicine to the local hospital to treat 2,500 people.

South Korean media, quoting witnesses and Chinese sources, put the toll at up to 3,000 people killed or injured. The world's worst rail disaster to date was in India in 1981 when at least 800 people died after a crowded train was blown off the track during a cyclone.

OVERHEAD POWER LINES

The explosion took place nine hours after a train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il passed through on his way back from a visit to China.

An Irish aid worker based in Pyongyang quoted North Korean officials as telling her the blast was caused by overhead electrical wires touching carriages carrying dynamite.

"They told us that 150 people had died, including some schoolchildren," Anne O'Mahony, the regional director of Concern, said, adding at least 1,000 injured were being treated in three local hospitals.

The blast also destroyed more than 1,800 homes, she said. South Korea's KBS TV said the area around the station was "reduced to ashes."

"They were trying to move these railway carriages to connect them to another train and they got caught in the overhead electric cable and that detonated the dynamite which caused the explosion," O'Mahony said by telephone from Pyongyang.

John Sparrow, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said 1,850 homes were destroyed and rescue teams were scouring the rubble.
The explosion, which sent plumes of acrid smoke billowing over the town and rained debris for miles around, was caused by rail cars laden with explosives, possibly for mining, Sparrow said after speaking to Red Cross officials at the scene.

The CIA's Web site says Ryongchon has a population of 130,000 and officials in Seoul say there are fuel storage sites in and around the town.

North Korean television devoted its evening news broadcast to reports on Kim's China trip and did not mention the disaster.

Kim usually travels in a luxury armored train -- a gift to his father from Stalin -- because he is believed to fear flying.

An intelligence source in South Korea said there was no hint of sabotage or an attempt on the life of Kim. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Ansfield, Brian Rhoads, Zhou Xiqin, Marie Frail and John Ruwitch in Beijing, Paul Eckert and Rhee So-eui in Seoul, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva)

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

Possubility that this disaster can bring North and South together?

[SeanAshi]

Possubility that this disaster can bring North and South together?I seriously doubt it, the North will need to give up its communist ways and then burn all them pictures and statues of Kim Il Sung.

[SeanAshi]

http://people.bu.edu/hipstomp/im16.jpg
http://people.bu.edu/hipstomp/im15.jpg

[Ghostwolf]

Possubility that this disaster can bring North and South together?I seriously doubt it, the North will need to give up its communist ways and then burn all them pictures and statues of Kim Il Sung.

Well I seriously doubted that as well, old habits die hard.
Today the North Korean may thank the international community for
helping out, but for the next day it will still spitting out anti western
rhetorics, and that had happened numerous times before.

[Uninen]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/04/24/nkorea.train/index.html


Red Cross: N. Korea site flattened

Saturday, April 24, 2004 Posted: 9:04 AM EDT (1304 GMT)

(CNN) -- A Red Cross worker who visited the site of a train explosion in North Korea has described the scene as one of devastation, with burned and "totally flattened" buildings.

With some on-site pictures, check it out.....

[Uncle Sam]

http://www.xbox-connection.com/hostedimages/crater.jpg


A large crater is seen at the railway station in Ryongchon, North Korea, after a catastrophic explosion, April 24, 2004. At least 154 people, including 76 students, were killed and more than 1,300 people were injured in the blast at the railway station in the town of Ryongchon near the Chinese border on April 22, China's Xinhua news agency said, quoting a senior rescue official. Picture taken April 24, 2004. *******/World Food Programme/Jakob Kern

[Flagg]

It will be interesting to learn how much of an effect this will have on North Korea's already anemic economy.

I believe I read somewhere that North Korea's transportation infrastructure is primarily reliant on rail for internal distribution.

If China is NK's biggest non-military trading partner

and this explosion has destroyed the main rail junction closest to China

NK could be looking at another crisis along the lines of the mid-90's famine

The next few months could be quite dicey

This event could be used as leverage to disarm NK in exchange for aid

or NK could lash out like a cornered rat.

In any case.....as I said before I do not envy the South Koreans......no matter which way it goes South Korea will eventually be footing the bill for NK reconstruction

Have a look at the economic drain integrating East Germany with West Germany cost.......that pales in comparison to the challenge faced in the Korean Peninsula....you're likely looking at a cost closer to a trillion than a billion.

In my opinion, there will be no happy ending on the Korean Peninsula......the only thing in question is HOW MUCH it's going to hurt the local, regional, and global economy.