The Yalu River that marks China’s border with North Korea breached a dyke today after torrential rain, inundating parts of the Chinese city of Dandong and forcing the evacuation of more than 50,000 people.

North Korea has acknowledged for the first time that swine flu had hit the nation, a day after South Korea’s president offered to help the impoverished neighbour fight the virus reported to have already killed dozens.

NORTH Korea is in desperate need of medical aid to treat victims of its huge train blast, UN officials warned yesterday.

THE main hospital treating victims of a train explosion in North Korea laid out young patients on filing cabinets yesterday as it struggled to overcome a shortage of beds and problems with medical equipment, according to an aid official.

The main hospital treating victims of a train explosion in North Korea laid out young patients on filing cabinets today as it struggled to overcome a shortage of beds and problems with medical equipment, according to an aid official.

Food, tents and other emergency aid from China arrived today in North Korea to help it recover from a devastating train explosion that killed more than 160 people, about half of them children in a school torn apart by the blast.

North Korea was maintaining its cloak of silence today over the crash between two North Korean fuel trains that is believed to have killed or injured as many as 3,000 people.