Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4/22/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=NORTH KOREA / BLAST (S)

NUMBER=2-315269

BYLINE=KATE POUND DAWSON

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A massive explosion near a key rail station in North Korea has apparently devastated an area near the border with China. News reports from South Korea say thousands of people in North Korea may have been injured or killed. As Kate Pound Dawson reports from our Asian News Center in Hong Kong, the area is a key industrialized region of the impoverished nation.

TEXT: News reports from South Korea say two fuel trains collided Thursday at Ryongchon (PRONO: yong-CHON), near the border with China.

About nine hours earlier, a train carrying the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, had passed through the area, as he was returning from a visit to Beijing.

James Lilley is the former U-S ambassador to both China and South Korea. He describes the region around the accident site, the border crossing at Dandong (PRON: tan-DUNG).

/// LILLEY ACT ///

I just know that it's heavily industrialized, that they have the rail that goes across the bridge there at Dandong into North Korea, very heavily traveled.

/// END ACT ///

There was no immediate confirmation from North Korean officials about the collision. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports Pyongyang has declared a state of emergency.

It is extremely rare that news of major accidents in North Korea reaches the outside world. Some analysts speculate that this one became known because many North Koreans in the area have mobile phones given to them by relatives in China. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/KPD/RH/TW