Trains Collide in North Korea; Many Casualties Feared

[Janice]

Trains Collide in North Korea; Many Casualties Feared


SEOUL (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.

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, according to South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN. A YTN reporter in Seoul, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the network's casualty count came from a South Korean government official, whom he declined to identify.

''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 AP 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 apparently 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-prone. 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.

[vienna waits]

North Korea is nuts. That leader has brain washed every citizen... it's sad.

[Brent88]

They are so pathetic. The media is controlled by the government there.