Korean Train Tragedy

[Timber Loftis]

Just got this, I am going to keep my eyes open and post more if I find it.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- 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.

[Ronn_Bman]

I heard this as well. There was also a report that the government had cut their international phone lines to keep details of the accident from leaking?

I don't know if that has been proved true, but I did catch that snippet on our local news... They aren't always the most accurate when they try to report international stories, so I'll take that with a grain of salt until reported elsewhere.

[Timber Loftis]

NYTimes:
Reports of Massive Blast Emerge From Secretive North Korea
By JAMES BROOKE

Published: April 22, 2004

SEOUL, South Korea, Friday, April 23 — Hundreds of people were killed and injured when two trains loaded with fuel collided and exploded in a North Korean railroad station on Thursday, only hours after North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, had passed by, according to reports in South Korean news media.

The cable television network YTN estimated that up to 3,000 people had been killed or injured in huge explosions that followed the collision of a train carrying gasoline and a second carrying liquefied petroleum gas.

"We've obtained the information that there was a large explosion near Ryongchon Station," a South Korean Defense Ministry official who was not identified told the Yonhap news agency.

North Korea is such a secretive and unconventional society — Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il's father, is still the head of state a decade after his death — that it is not expected to issue news of the train wreck any time soon.

Train wrecks with large numbers of fatalities are rare in North Korea, largely because trains creak slowly along rails that were first laid during the Japanese occupation, more than 60 years ago.

The explosion took place on North Korea's busiest rail line, on the route from Pyongyang to China. A lifeline for the impoverished nation, the route brings in food and fuel from China, the North's leading trading partner and a major source of aid.

The blast took place around noon, near the time when North Korea's state-controlled news media first informed its people that Mr. Kim, the nation's leader, had made a rare trip abroad to China. Mr. Kim, who leaves the country only in a specially armored rail car, a gift to his father by Stalin, had secretly passed through Ryongchon station shortly before dawn, nine hours before the blast. Mr. Kim, known as the "Dear Leader," does not travel by airplane.

It was Mr. Kim's first trip to China in three years. The blast undoubtedly will shake the leadership of North Korea, a suspicious elite that maintains a personality cult around Mr. Kim, whose decade in power has coincided with the nation's impoverishment.

North Korea declared a state of alert in the area of the explosion and cut some international telephone links, Yonhap reported.

"The station was destroyed as if hit by a bombardment and debris flew high into the sky," the South Korean news agency reported, quoting unidentified Chinese officials. Ryongchon is on flat coastal land, 30 miles south of the North's border with China.

North Korea's official announcement on Thursday of Mr. Kim's three-day trip to Beijing seemed to signal that he had returned safely to Pyongyang.

Reuters reported that residents of Pyongyang reached by telephone had said that there was nothing unusual in the capital. North Korean television was broadcasting military songs and music — standard evening fare.

[johnny]

Too bad we'll never know what exactly happened. Instead of informing the people with facts, they rather run a couple of old militairy videos, together with a bunch "glory to our leader" tapes. We all know North Korea is as broke as broke can be, but they are too damn proud, or better, stupid, to ask for foreign aid. For the sake of the victims, i hope they smarten up.

[John D Harris]

Originally posted by johnny: Too bad we'll never know what exactly happened. Instead of informing the people with facts, they rather run a couple of old militairy videos, together with a bunch "glory to our leader" tapes. We all know North Korea is as broke as broke can be, but they are too damn proud, or better, stupid, to ask for foreign aid. For the sake of the victims, i hope they smarten up.

Don't hold your breath Johnny NK is run by at low life piece of manure, that should be next in line to have a can of whoopass opened on them, from Uncle Sam.

[Timber Loftis]

I disagree. Kim Jong Il is the honored and revered leader! To show my support, I'm going to spike my hair and wear 3 inch platform shoes tomorrow to make me tall like the revered leader!

[Kakero]

Rumuors has it that China is involved with this crash. As the crash site is near to China border and Kim himself is at that place sometime ago.

[Donut]

North Korea have now admitted that the accident happened and have asked for help.

Gicven that they can't cope with what everyday life runs by them it's difficult to see how they can cope with this.

I want the Nuke Standoff to end as much as the next guy...but not like that, man!

[Kakero]

You have to give the North Koreans credit though, for someone who can't cope with their everyday life. they sure can keep their place very very clean and tidy.