Posted on 04/22/2004 7:29:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
Wars are quite useful. They keep peoples minds off of the truth.
As I write this, Fox is reporting that the NK "news blackout" included "cutting the phone service to the town where this happened." So it is definitely more than meets the eye right now.
Congressman Billybob
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) _ As many as 3,000 people were killed or injured Thursday when two trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas collided and exploded in a North Korean train station near the Chinese border, South Korean media reported.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, reportedly had passed through the station as he returned from China hours earlier, South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN, reported.
The number killed or injured could reach 3,000, YTN said, citing unidentified sources on the Chinese side of the border. ``The area around Ryongchon station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded,'' South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted witnesses as saying. ``Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuju,'' a North Korean town on the border with China, the agency said.
Yonhap, quoting witnesses in the Chinese city of Dandong on the border with the North, said the explosion occurred about 1 p.m. at Ryongchon. It said Kim passed through nine hours earlier, returning to Pyongyang. Ryongchon is about 12 miles from the Chinese border. Yang Jong-hwa, a spokeswoman of South Korea's Unification Ministry, said her organization could not immediately confirm the reports. The ministry is in charge of relations with North Korea.
The Defense Ministry likewise was not commenting. ``We are aware of the news reports, but we will not make any comments at this stage,'' said a spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
YTN reported that the causalities included Chinese living in the North Korean border region, and that Chinese in Dandong 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, a bustling industrial city on Yalu River.
North Korea's state-run news agency on Thursday confirmed that Kim had made a secretive trip to China on Monday through Wednesday, but carried no comments on the reported explosion. The accident resembled a disaster in Iran on Feb. 18, when runaway train cars carrying fuel and industrial chemicals derailed in the town Neyshabur, setting off explosions that destroyed five villages. At least 200 people were killed.
AP-ES-04-22-04 1104EDT
Might be a 9/11 situation. Or, with the probable state of NK train maintenance, maybe just a runaway train. I doubt we, or the NK people, will ever know the truth.
Could be missles .. but would it cause that big of an explosion to kill up to 3,000 people?
20 miles away???
What was on that train .. a nuke bomb???
Thousands Dead or Injured in N.Korea Rail Blast-YTN
Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:44 AM ETBy Jack Kim and Martin Nesirky
SEOUL (Reuters) - Up to 3,000 people were killed or injured when two trains loaded with fuel collided and exploded at a North Korean station Thursday, hours after leader Kim Jong-il had passed through, South Korea's YTN television said.
YTN quoted witnesses in its report while South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which spoke of widespread destruction, also said there were thousands of casualties. Neither Yonhap nor YTN gave a breakdown of deaths and injuries.
Yonhap quoted sources in the Chinese city of Dandong that borders the North as saying the explosion occurred around 1 p.m. -- nine hours after Kim's special train was reported to have passed on its way back to Pyongyang after a visit to China.
"The station was destroyed as if hit by a bombardment and debris flew high into the sky," Yonhap said, quoting the unidentified Chinese sources.
The sources said cargo trains carrying gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas collided at Ryonchon station 30 miles south of the border.
Yonhap also quoted a senior Defense Ministry official as saying the South's military -- which eavesdrops on North Korea -- had heard about the blast through "intelligence channels directed against the North."
There was no immediate suggestion the blast was anything other than an accident. But the explosion came after Kim met China's new leadership during a rare foreign visit to discuss the North's nuclear weapons plans and tentative economic reforms.
North Korea appears to have cut international telephone lines to the area to prevent information about the explosion getting out, Yonhap added. The North appears to have declared a type of emergency in the area.
"We have not yet received official information on the accident. We are trying to confirm the report," a Unification Ministry spokesman said in Seoul. Other officials at various government agencies also had no information.
Yonhap said the sources said people in Dandong were concerned their friends or relatives could have been caught up on the explosion. Traders from both sides criss-cross the border area.
A railway worker on the Chinese side of the Dandong border crossing told Reuters he had not heard of a blast and had seen no signs of any emergency effort under way.
"The closest station to here in North Korea is in Sinuiju (on the border), and I would have heard it. But I didn't hear anything," he said by telephone.
North Korea's official media broke their silence on Kim's three-day trip to Beijing Thursday -- strongly suggesting Kim was safely back in Pyongyang -- but did not mention the explosion. Kim does not travel by air when he does venture outside North Korea.
Residents in Pyongyang said by telephone there was nothing unusual in the capital. North Korean television was broadcasting military songs and music -- standard evening fare.
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