Trains Collide, Explode in North Korea

Yahoo! News ^ | Thu, Apr 22, 2004

[Kaslin]

SEOUL, South Korea - Thousands of people were believed killed or injured Thursday when two trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas collided and exploded in a North Korean train station, hours after leader Kim Jong Il passed through on his return from a China visit, South Korean news media reported.

The number killed or injured could reach 3,000, said YTN, South Korea (news - web sites)'s all-news cable channel, citing unnamed sources on the China-North Korea (news - web sites) border.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting sources in the Chinese city of Dandong that borders the North, said the explosion took place around 1 p.m. local time at Ryongchon, nine hours after Kim passed through on his way back to Pyongyang.

Ryongchon is about 12 miles from the Chinese border.

[Porterville]

Didn't that same thing happen in Iran?

[Eurotwit]

There are reports that there any many chinese killed who lived on the border according to YTN it is reported in a Norwegian paper.

[webheart]

I'm thinking two trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas would cause one heck of an explosion.

Silly question... why would two trains carrying oil and liquified petroleum gas be travelling in opposite directions? LOL

[Darksheare]

Somewhere it was mentioned that it was either gasoline tanker railcars, or LP -liquefied petroleum gas.
The LP, in enough quantities, on a railcar getting mashed WOULD be enough to flatten just about anything.
An LP tanker ship in the Verrazano Narrows of NY state getting rammed, or detonated purposefully, would damage the bridge there if done 'right'.

Doesn't necessarily have ot be explosive weapons on a train to level stuff, just a nice and touchy enough combustable substance.
However, depending upon the level of devatsation and what have you, it could be a weapons train, granted.
Kinda like the one that took out all those Jihadis in Iran recently.

[webheart]

Maybe this cause a popular uprising against Kim Jong Il's regime, which indeed may fall.

I always had the opinion that the Chernobyl nuclear disaser was a big factor in the fall of the Soviet empire.

[narby]

I suppose this won't slow Willie Green down in his rail promotions.

People can be killed in airplane crashes, but to really have a tragedy takes a train.

[Judith Anne]

That's not a silly question...hmmmmm....

[Judith Anne]

"People can be killed in airline crashes, but to really have a tragedy takes a train."

Like 9/11?

[Mo1]

Doesn't necessarily have ot be explosive weapons on a train to level stuff, just a nice and touchy enough combustable substance

That's true .. but from reports I am hearing .. the area isn't a populated area .. that's why I was wondering

[BigSkyFreeper]

"Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky," Yonhap news agency reported.

[Diddle E. Squat]

More likely Chinese workers in Ryongchon who live in the Chinese border city. It happened midday, so LPG cars in a wreck at speed, in or simply near a crowded train station, with some high-rise residential(common in poor countries, think Soviet-style commie blocks) surrounding the station, and typical shoddy commie construction could very easily combine to create a tragedy of this scale. Wouldn't have to be a bomb, with multiple LPG cars exploding one after another and oil to feed the flames.

So an accident is very plausible, or maybe there is more involved.

[Ciexyz]

terrorism?

[UWhusky]

anybody know anything about nukes? if a nuke were on a train that crashed, could that cause the nuke to detonate?

this is all way too spooky and suspicious. perhaps the good guys were watching from the sky and decided we need to take the train because of what it contained. also send a message to what's his name, the n korean leader who afraid to fly. We can get you anywhere.

[UWhusky]

Sorry about all the typos. I was in a hurry.

[bonfire]

I would bet the farm that the good guys had a bead on that train!

[Darksheare]

Oh THAT'S wonderful news.
Means there were military types all over the trains, both of them.
And that would mean SOMETHING weird is going on.

[mtbopfuyn]

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.

Move along. Nothing to see.

[Chad_the_Impaler]

Theory: passage of the train of Dear Leader Lil' Kim threw off the train schedules.

[Robert_Paulson2]

I dunno...
Bush?
Evil Jooz?
The war on terror?

I am guessing they will blame it on the CIA.

[Riley]

if a nuke were on a train that crashed, could that cause the nuke to detonate?

The odds are spectacularly against it. They're generally dependent on a rigid sequence of events and a specific physical geometry. There was a nuclear bomber crash and fire (with a live weapon on board) at Travis AFB, IIRC many years ago. Nasty fire, the conventional explosives cooked off, but of course, no detonation.