CTV.ca April 22, 2004
North Korea remains mum on train crash reports
North Korean authorities have reportedly declared a state of emergency in the region where two trains apparently collided and exploded, killing or injuring as many as 3,000 people.
Details about the incident remain unclear, as the state-run news agency in communist North Korea has yet to report on the explosion.
As well, the North Korean government cut all international phone lines, likely a sign of the state's efforts to contain news of the crash.
Part of the reason the outside world learned of the disaster at all is that it happened close to the Chinese border, near Dandong, where people have cell phones, says John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org.
Reports from South Korean news services say the collision occurred at a train station near the Chinese border, just hours after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il passed through on his way to the capital, Pyongyang.
It's not known what caused the crash, or if it was related to Kim's journey.
The two trains that crashed were believed to have been carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas. An international passenger train parked in the station was filled with ethnic Chinese, say witnesses.
The station itself and a five-storey building nearby were completely levelled, a Chinese source in Dangdong told South Korea's Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper.
South Korean all-news TV station YTN cites witness accounts of terrible destruction in the area of the crash. Quoting unidentified sources on the Chinese side of the border, YTN said the number killed or injured could reach 3,000.
The Associated Press quotes South Korea's Yonhap news agency as saying a "type of state of emergency" has been imposed around the town of Ryongchon near the Chinese border.
It's not known how many survivors there are and whether they will be able to recieve proper medical attention. North Korea is one of the world's poorest, and most isolated regimes, where thousands are suffering from a lack of food and medical care.
So far, Pyongyang has not asked the global community for help. It has called only on China for help in rescue operations, reports Reuters.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says there's not much other governments can do to help.
"I don't think we know enough about the situation yet to know whether there's any assistance that we have that might be necessary," he told reporters.
As expected, North Korea's state broadcaster made no mention of the explosion Thursday, reporting only on the fact that Kim Jong Il had made a secretive visit to China to discuss the international standoff over his country's nuclear weapons program.
The announcement broke the silence on Kim's three-day trip to Beijing, with broadcasts repeating the news over and over, suggesting he made it back safely in Pyongyang.
Kim reportedly routinely travels by train because he fears flying.
© Copyright 2004, Bell Globemedia Inc.
