April 23, 2004

Update: Australian News is now reporting that the train(s) was/were carrying explosives and not fuel.
Curiouser and curiouser... Where were these trains going loaded with blow-up supplies? And for what purpose?
North Korea is so creepy. I wish somebody would "regime change" them soon.
I'll bet this means our troops on the border between the Koreas are on High Alert; God bless and protect all of you fine young men and women.

Update #2: The BBC is now reporting that 2 trains, both filled with dynamite, were hit by a live wire.
Not only were people on the trains hurt or killed, but that there were many homes near the tracks that collapsed.

[...]A Red Cross team sent to the scene has reported that 1,850 homes have been flattened and 6,350 seriously damaged.

In the first independent account, the Red Cross said the train blast killed at least 54 people and injured 1,200.
[...]
But diplomatic sources in Pyongyang say the figure is much higher, as reports indicate the blast happened when two wagons of dynamite hit a live wire.

This is the strangest, most terrible story I've heard in a while...
Was this a Chinese "hit" on Kim or what?
If it turns out that Al Queda was behind it, I'll know that the whole world has truly gone through the looking glass!
(Kim was supposed to be working on the side of the IslamoNazis and he certainly doesn't have troops in Iraq.)

Thousands Hurt, Killed in N. Korea Train Blast

Up to 3,000 people may have been killed or injured Thursday in a horrific train collision and explosion at a station near the Chinese border, according to South Korean news media, just hours after North Korean President Kim Jong Il had passed through the same spot.
[I can't help but think that this was an attempt on Kim's life.--Jen]

The blast was so strong that debris flew into the air for 10 miles around the crash site. North Korea declared a state of emergency after the crash, but the country's secretive communist government cut international phone lines and stopped information from leaking out.

North Korea asked China for help Friday in the rescue effort, according to a Dandong city official quoted by Reuters, in the first acknowledgement of the occurrence of the disaster by the Pyongyang government. The North's official KCNA news agency still had not mentioned the disaster by Friday morning, more than 20 hours after the blast.

South Korean President Goh Kun also ordered officials to prepare aid, his office said.
[...]

A doctor in Dandong told Reuters on Friday his hospital had been told by Chinese authorities to prepare for thousands of dead and injured.
[...]
The Red Cross was holding an emergency meeting in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, officials said.
[...]
The British Broadcasting Corporation showed on its Web site what it claimed to be a black-and-white satellite photo taken 18 hours after reported explosion. The photo showed huge clouds of black smoke billowing from the alleged blast site.
[...]
"A passenger train that connects China and North Korea and was carrying many Chinese living in the North was stopped at the station when the accident happened," the newspaper said.

South Korea's Defense Ministry confirmed Friday that there was an explosion at Ryongchon, a town 12 miles from China, but could not provide further details. "All we know is that there was a large explosion," a ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

Almost immediately following the crash of the two trains, one carrying oil and the other liquefied petroleum, rumors spread that it could have been a deliberate attempt on Kim’s life.
[...]
South Korean news organizations reported that the collision took place about 1 p.m. Thursday. On Friday, however, YTN cited government sources as saying that the blast was triggered by a train carrying LPG and there wasn't a crash. Because of the absence of official information, there was no immediate way to clarify the discrepancy.
[...]
The area around Ryongchon station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded," 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.

About nine hours before the blast, Kim had reportedly passed through the station where the collision happened as he returned from a secret trip to China, South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN, reported. Kim met with the country's leaders and discussed the standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program.
[...]
James Lilley, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and to China, said he saw a possibility that anti-Kim forces could have tried to carry out an assassination attempt like this.

"They realize the system depends so much on him and the system is so bad and punitive that some people could have just taken the situation into their own hands," he told Fox News.

Lilley said an accident of this magnitude would make it impossible for the North Koreans to keep quiet.

"I'm sure this kind of thing happens quite frequently in North Korea," Lilley said. "Their infrastructure is deteriorating fast."

Analysts differed on whether the incident was planned.
[...]
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, and the 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 cars are usually packed with people, and defectors say trains are seldom punctual and frequently break down.

The trunk line on which Thursday's accident reportedly occurred, the main rail link between China and North Korea, was first laid during the Japanese occupation more than 60 years ago.

This is the strangest, most horrible story...
Was it an attempt on Kim Jung-Il's life?
More importantly, was it successful? (Keep your fingers crossed!)
Or more likely, was it just typically Communist poorly-maintained non-functional stuff?
I heard one sharp armchair pundit say that this may be North Korea's "Chernobyl"--a man-made disaster brought on by government neglect which causes the people to get truly fed up with the Communist system.
I live in hope.
No matter what happened, my prayers and sympathy go out to the victims and their families.