Trains tragedy: China, South Korea offer aid

A catastrophic train accident in North Korea was caused by a collision of fuel-laden trains and there may be “a large number of people killed or injured”, South Korea’s Unification Minister said today.

North Korea remained silent today about the explosion at Ryongchon station, 12 miles from China, that reportedly killed as many as 3,000 people.

Jeong Se-hyun, in charge of Seoul’s relations with communist North Korea, said China had been urging North Korea to send injured people across the border to hospitals in China, but that North Korea had instead been asking China to dispatch relief workers to the scene of the disaster.

“For the moment, there is no official confirmation from North Korea, and we have difficulties confirming details of the accident,” Jeong told a news conference.

“We believe there was a lot of damage,” Jeong said. There was an explosion and we believe there was a large number of people killed or injured.”

“Our government considers the incident deeply regrettable and offers our condolences to the victims and will do all it can do in the spirit of compatriotism and humanitarianism,” he said.

The blast came nine hours after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il passed through the station on his way back from a three-day visit to China.

But given the circumstances and the timing of the blast, Jeong said: “I don’t think sabotage was involved.”

The chief of the South Korean Red Cross is currently in North Korea on an unrelated business trip and has been ordered to investigate the accident and evaluate what kind of relief North Korea might need, Jeong said.

He said it was caused by two trains loaded with fuel colliding at the station.

China said at least two Chinese were killed and a dozen injured.

The disaster happened when fuel-laden trains collided, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said.

The explosion rained debris for more than 10 miles, South Korean media said.

A brief statement by China’s foreign ministry and a report by China’s state news agency Xinhua that quoted the Chinese Embassy in the North Korean capital Pyongyang offered the first official confirmation of casualties.

Xinhua said that among the 12 injured Chinese, two sustained serious injuries and the remaining 10 were slightly wounded. The blast also knocked down what Xinhua said were 20 Chinese houses. It did not say where the houses were and made no mention of North Korean casualties or damage.

The communist government in Pyongyang declared an emergency in the area while cutting off international telephone lines to prevent crash details from leaking out, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. The North’s official KCNA news agency still had not mentioned the disaster by today, a full day later.

It was not immediately clear what caused the disaster. But local media reports quoted South Korean officials as saying it appeared to be an accident, and not linked to a reported trip through the station hours earlier by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as he returned from China.

South Korea’s defence ministry confirmed today that there was an explosion at Ryongchon, 12 miles from China, but could not provide further details on what exploded or how many died. “All we know is that there was a large explosion,” a ministry spokesman said.

The BBC showed on its website what it claimed to be a black-and-white satellite photo taken 18 hours after the reported explosion. The photo showed huge clouds of black smoke billowing from the alleged blast site.

South Korea’s acting president Goh Kun ordered his government to prepare assistance if necessary. The country’s Red Cross also said it was prepared to offer food and clothes if requested.

The explosion devastated a densely populated neighbourhood around the station and prompted North Korean authorities to declare a “state of emergency” in the area, South Korean media reported.

“If the report is true, this is a very tragic accident and we relay deep condolences,” South Korea’s acting president Goh Kun said at a meeting with his senior staffs.

North Korean authorities “asked the North Korean Red Cross to go up to the accident site and make an assessment. On the basis of that assessment, which will be done very quickly, we will respond,” said John Sparrow, a Red Cross spokesman in Beijing.

The Chinese city of Dandong, near the border with North Korea, also said it was prepared to provide medical and rescue assistance, although Xu Chao, an official at the Dandong Municipal Propaganda Office, said his city has not yet received any official aid request.

Meanwhile, Dandong’s three biggest hospitals said they were preparing for a possible influx of victims.

“We’re ready to offer our close neighbour our best medical help anytime,” an official at Dandong Chinese Hospital said.

The trains were carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and other media reported. At the time of the crash, an international passenger train carrying many ethnic Chinese was parked in the station, South Korea’s mass circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, without citing sources.

In a sign of the blast’s magnitude, the North Korean government cut international phone lines to prevent news of the collision from leaking across its borders, Yonhap said, citing no sources. A Yonhap correspondent in China also said North Korea appeared to be shutting down border traffic.

A five-storey building near the station was levelled, a Chinese source in Dandong told South Korea’s Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper after telephoning a relative in Ryongchon.

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.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the US government had no information about the explosion.