North Korea declares state of emergency but shuts out world

NORTH Korea declared a state of emergency and closed down phonelines last night as the paranoid Stalinist state attempted to impose a news blackout after as many as 3,000 people were killed or injured in a horror train crash.

It was certain that a large number of people were killed, but it was impossible to determine how many, though some people speculated thousands might have died, said South Korea's Yonhap newsagency.

It would be one of the worst rail disasters ever and happened in a secretive Stalinist nation where starvation is commonplace while its leader Kim Jong Il enjoys a life of vintage brandy and, reputedly, imported blondes.

He had passed through the station as he returned from China nine hours earlier. It was not clear what caused the crash, but one official said it appeared to be an accident when freight trains carrying petrol and liquefied petroleum gas collided at Ryonchon station, 12 miles south of the border.

Cho Sung-dae, a Yonhap correspondent in Beijing, said sources in the Chinese border town of Dandong, who had talked with their relatives in Ryongchon, described a massive explosion involving a large number of casualties but could not give figures.

South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN, reported the area around Ryongchon station "has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded."

"Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuju," a North Korean town on the border with China, it said.

The Yonhap report of the state-of-emergency declaration gave no details. It said North Korean government officials had put in place a "type of state of emergency" around Ryongchon, 12 miles from the Chinese border.

In a sign of the accident's magnitude and North Korea's paranoia, the government cut international phonelines to prevent news of the crash leaking across its borders, Yonhap said.

North Korea is one of the world's most isolated countries and rarely allows outside journalists inside.

News events within its borders are difficult to independently confirm and the communist country's state-controlled media is unlikely to provide quick confirmation of such an accident.

Yonhap, quoting witnesses in the Chinese city of Dandong on the border with the North, said the explosion occurred about 1pm (5.00am Irish time) at Ryongchon.

It said Kim passed through nine hours earlier, returning to Pyongyang. During his secretive visit to Beijing, he met the Chinese leadership and was urged to soften his hard-line in the stand-off with the US over the North's nuclear weapons programme.

The US has thousands of troops stationed over the border in South Korea.

Residents in Pyongyang said there was nothing unusual in the capital. North Korean television was broadcasting military songs and music standard evening fare.

North Korea's infrastructure is dilapidated and accident-prone. Its passenger trains are usually packed with people, but defectors say they are seldom punctual and frequently break down.

Yang Jong-hwa, a spokeswoman of South Korea's Unification Ministry, could not immediately confirm reports of the crash. The ministry is in charge of relations with North Korea.

YTN reported the causalities 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.

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 neighbour for aid.