North Korea spurns South’s doctor offer and asks for TVs

APPALLED by the carnage of last week’s train explosion in North Korea, South Korea quickly offered to send doctors to treat child victims in crowded hospitals, their charred faces wrapped in dirty bandages and without the intravenous drips essential to burn patients.

But North Korea rejected the offer and instead it handed the South a list of "relief goods" including 50 colour TV sets which it wants unloaded in an area far from the explosion site.

A South Korean freighter sailed for the North yesterday to deliver its first aid shipment: 1 million worth of medicines, blankets, instant noodles, bottled water and clothes.