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Train collision in N. Korea reportedly causes around 3,000 casualties
A redo of yesterday's article...
The South Korean government has confirmed that two trains loaded with oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) collided in the Ryongchon railway station near the border of North Korea and China at around 1 p.m. on April 22, killing or injuring as many as 3,000 people, according a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The Ministry further disclosed that one Chinese citizen was killed and two were severally injured in the explosion.
Cargo's been reported as other substances, to include dynamite and gunpowder for use in digging a canal...
Additionally, 10 Chinese citizens living in North Korea are believed to have suffered minor injuries in the explosion. Five of them are receiving medical treatment in a local hospital, while the other five have been already been released from medial facilities. The two seriously injured Chinese nationals are being treated in a different hospital in Sinjiuju. Nicholas Bonner, Director of Koryo Tours, which has specialized in travel to North Korea since 1993, told Interfax that the train line is not blocked, as the evening train from Pyonyang had arrived in Beijing. "I can only speculate, but it seems that the explosion was slightly off the main track," Bonner told Interfax, "we have been told there is still train travel into North Korea."
Curious! Big blast on railway line, but trains still running.
The situation is still confused, as "the border (between China and North Korea) may have been closed," said a checkpoint official in Dandong when contacted by Interfax. "The explosion happened beyond Siniuju. It was a distance from the bridge (crossing the Yalu river), so we didn’t manage to hear anything," he added.
You can hear a big blast a long way off.
"I heard nothing! No-thing! Tell them, Hogan!"
Officials from China’s Embassy in Pyongyang held an emergent meeting with their counterparts from the North Korea Foreign Ministry late night on Thursday, hours after the two trains collided at one in the afternoon, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The Chinese Embassy is ready to provide first aid to North Korea, added the statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The Chinese checkpoint official would not confirm whether any injured people had been sent in through the bridge following the explosion, defining it as "secret information." The Chinese state media, quoting South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, said the collision had triggered a massive explosion and fire, leaving a train station in ruins. Still pictures taken from TV were printed by the Beijing based Chinese newspaper Xin Jing Bao, which showed firemen spraying water into a smoldering train compartment.
Curiouser still! mixing freight and passenger carriages on the same train is not a common practice especially with hazardous cargoes.
According to South Korea’s cable television YTN, the explosion occurred nine hours after the heavily armed train of North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-il passed the station.
Its the norm when a dictator dies that everyone says he’s alive and well until the succession has been arranged or fought over.
"The Ryongchon train station has turned into ruins after the explosion, as if it had been heavily bombed. The debris from the blast flew high into the sky, with some even falling down into Siniuju, on the border between China and North Korea," a witness told Yonhap.
As I pointed out yesterday, the winds are blowing strongly from the North and debris would not be blown into China.
An anonymous spokesman from South Korea’s Defense Ministry said, "we have noticed these news reports, but we cannot make any comment on this at the present stage."
My read on this is that Kimmie was boomed and may well be dead.
We can only hope. There're a lot of coincidences, and a lot of misinformation, but that could be because of all the commies involved. I wouldn't get my hopes up...

Posted by: Phil B 2004-04-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=31315