"3,000 dead" in North Korea train blast...

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-04-23 12:11am

WOAH!

That's TEN TIMES as many people as died in the recent Madrid bombings.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-04-23 12:11am

Space Imaging might have something up in the near future.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2004-04-23 12:19am

Poor guys.

I haven't seen anything about it on the news here. Says something doesn't it?

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2004-04-23 12:32am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:....

You've got to me kidding me.

Oh no. Its true.

And here is some North Korea propaganda for everyone! So you can see exactly what they see on TV over there.

http://www.robpongi.com/pages/comboFUCKINGUSAHI.html

http://www.robpongi.com/pages/comboKIMJONGIL.html

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-04-23 12:37am

Erm... That's... Riiiiigggggghhhhhhttttttttt.

Post by **Edi** » 2004-04-23 01:15am

MKSheppard wrote:
Edi wrote:They keep the little tinpot dictator doped up to the eyeballs and repeating scripted statements.

Generals like stability and job security. North Korea's actions the last
few years have NOT been conducive to international stability.

They like stability yes, but not at the possible cost of their own jobs, which is exactly what would happen if any kind of reunion of the Koreas was attempted through diplomatic means. NK has played its cards very shrewdly, creating enough instability and confusion on the international front to keep everyone on their toes, but not enough that they are actually viewed as raring to go at everyone in the neighborhood. Belligerent talk is one thing, actual action a whole another ball game.

Edi

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-04-23 01:17am

I am deeply saddened that this isn't top-story news on any news websites I go to.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2004-04-23 01:45am

My local radio station says satelite imagery shows heavy smoke, but not much details. This boggles the mind. If 3,000 people are really hurt or injured in a country that will do everything to cover it up, just makes you shake your head.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2004-04-23 04:29am

Here is a satellite Image:

Daltonator · Post by **Daltonator** » 2004-04-23 06:31am

Update: Apparently it's at least 54 dead and 1,249 injured at the moment, says the Red Cross...

MSNBC.com wrote:N. Korea train collision kills at least 54
1,249 injured, Red Cross says; toll could rise

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 5:00 a.m. ET April 23, 2004

SEOUL, South Korea - A blast believed to have been caused by explosives on rail wagons has killed 54 people and injured 1,249 people in North Korea, a Red Cross spokesman said on Friday.

John Sparrow, a regional delegation spokesman for the IFRC in Beijing, said 1,850 households were leveled by the blast near the center of the town of Ryongchon, and another 6,350 homes were partly destroyed.

The number of casualties could climb as rescue crews combed through the rubble.

"That figure could increase, obviously," Sparrow said of the death toll after speaking to Red Cross officials at the scene of the accident.

The disaster was caused by rail cars laden with explosives, possibly for mining, he said.

The Chinese Embassy in North Korea confirmed that two Chinese were killed and 12 others injured, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

South Korea's Unification Minister said South Korea believes the collision caused "a lot of damage." Jeong Se-hyun, in charge of Seoul's relations with communist North Korea, also said China has been urging North Korea to send injured people across the border to hospitals in China, but that North Korea has instead been asking China to dispatch relief workers to the scene.

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

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.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, had quietly passed by rail through the station as he returned from China before dawn some nine hours earlier. It was not clear what caused the crash, or if it was related to Kim's journey.

But a South Korean official, quoted on condition of anonymity by South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN, said it appeared to be an accident.

Ryongchon has a reported population of 130,000 and is known for its chemical and metalwork plants.

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.

South Korean news organizations reported that the collision took place about 1 p.m. Thursday with one train carrying oil and the second with liquefied petroleum gas. 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 quoted witnesses as saying. "Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuiju," a North Korean town on the border with China, it said.

Silence from Pyongyang
Communist North Korea, one of the world’s most closed and impoverished countries, has not officially said anything about a disaster. North Korea’s state-run news agency confirmed Thursday that Kim had made a secretive trip to China on Monday through Wednesday, but it carried no comments on the explosion.

Cho Sung-dae, a correspondent for Yonhap in Beijing, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that North Korean authorities appeared to be shutting down the border with China.

“The area around Ryongchon station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded,” Yonhap quoted witnesses as saying. “Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuiju,” about 12 miles from the Chinese border.

YTN reported that Chinese in Dandong were desperately seeking information about relatives who may have been in the area. Chinese and North Korean traders frequently cross the border.

Some of the injured were evacuated to hospitals in Dandong, a bustling industrial city on the Yalu River, it said.

Offers of help
South Korea's acting President Goh Kun ordered his government to prepare assistance if necessary. "If the report is true, this is a very tragic accident and we relay deep condolences," he said at a meeting with senior staff. The country's Red Cross also said they were prepared offer food and clothes.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Bush administration had no information on the collision.

Officials in Dandong said they were 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 neighbor our best medical help anytime," an official at Dandong Chinese Hospital said.

The accident apparently resembled a disaster in Iran on Feb. 18, when runaway train cars carrying fuel and chemicals derailed, setting off explosions that destroyed five villages. At least 200 people were killed.

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.

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.

Sometimes, trains are stranded for hours at stations until their electricity supply is restored enabling them to continue, some defectors say.

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.

YTN reported that the casualties 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. Chinese and North Korean traders frequently cross the border at Dandong.

Some of the injured were evacuated to hospitals in Dandong, it said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-23 06:35am

Howedar wrote:I am deeply saddened that this isn't top-story news on any news websites I go to.

at the time it happened it was getting top billing on cnn, fox and msnbc.

BoredShirtless · Post by **BoredShirtless** » 2004-04-23 06:37am

Where the fuck is this guy getting his numbers from? The satellite photo Faram posted doesn't show an area of damage which could fit 1,850 houses.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-23 07:19am

BoredShirtless wrote:Where the fuck is this guy getting his numbers from? The satellite photo Faram posted doesn't show an area of damage which could fit 1,850 houses.

that big black scorch was once a train station.

BoredShirtless · Post by **BoredShirtless** » 2004-04-23 07:40am

Col. Crackpot wrote:
BoredShirtless wrote:Where the fuck is this guy getting his numbers from? The satellite photo Faram posted doesn't show an area of damage which could fit 1,850 houses.
that big black scorch was once a train station.

The article from Dalton said 1,850 houses were leveled, which is clearly bullshit. As you pointed out, a lot of the scorched area was the station....even then, you can't fit 1,850 houses into that area.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-23 08:17am

BoredShirtless wrote:
Col. Crackpot wrote:
BoredShirtless wrote:Where the fuck is this guy getting his numbers from? The satellite photo Faram posted doesn't show an area of damage which could fit 1,850 houses.
that big black scorch was once a train station.
The article from Dalton said 1,850 houses were leveled, which is clearly bullshit. As you pointed out, a lot of the scorched area was the station....even then, you can't fit 1,850 houses into that area.

you know what, the original report quoted a south korean source. we all know how objective the two koreas are when reporting the other's bad news.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-04-23 08:30am

[C-3PO] That's Funny, the damage doesn't look that bad from out here.[/C-3PO]

Seriously...Not trying to trivialize the loss of life, but it really doesn't look as catastrophic as all the press it has gotten.

BoredShirtless · Post by **BoredShirtless** » 2004-04-23 08:32am

Chardok wrote:[C-3PO] That's Funny, the damage doesn't look that bad from out here.[/C-3PO]

Seriously...Not trying to trivialize the loss of life, but it really doesn't look as catastrophic as all the press it has gotten.

That's cause the press if full of shit. Breaking news comes first, quality second.

Daltonator · Post by **Daltonator** » 2004-04-23 08:52am

BoredShirtless wrote:
Chardok wrote:[C-3PO] That's Funny, the damage doesn't look that bad from out here.[/C-3PO]

Seriously...Not trying to trivialize the loss of life, but it really doesn't look as catastrophic as all the press it has gotten.
That's cause the press if full of shit. Breaking news comes first, quality second.

Well, in a sense. Breaking news DOES come first, but the quality of the facts depends on the quality of the sources, and when news is breaking we don't have a hell of a lot of sources except for AP and Reuters, so we only report what we've seen so far and update that information as it trickles in throughout the day.

But we do like to get a leg up on the competition. Real competitive out here.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2004-04-23 09:11am

Apparently the Red Cross are claiming 54 dead, 8000 homes gone.

I just saw it on a news update.

BoredShirtless · Post by **BoredShirtless** » 2004-04-23 09:14am

This just in: the Red Cross is wrong, more details on the hour.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2004-04-23 09:26am

Gandalf wrote:Apparently the Red Cross are claiming 54 dead, 8000 homes gone.

I just saw it on a news update.

Sorry but NO FUCKING WAY. Have a look at the picture, even a retarded spider monkey could tell that there's no way 8000 homes were even singed by the blast.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2004-04-23 09:30am

The Kernel wrote:
Gandalf wrote:Apparently the Red Cross are claiming 54 dead, 8000 homes gone.

I just saw it on a news update.
Sorry but NO FUCKING WAY. Have a look at the picture, even a retarded spider monkey could tell that there's no way 8000 homes were even singed by the blast.

Of that I am aware.

Just thought I'd point out that this was the Red Cross' statement.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-23 10:14am

if that is the case, then the photo must not be the right one. The reports claim a train of CNG tanker cars crashed into a train of gasoline tanker cars. that photo is inconsistant with a massive CNG-Gasoline blast.

BoredShirtless · Post by **BoredShirtless** » 2004-04-23 10:19am

Col. Crackpot wrote:if that is the case, then the photo must not be the right one. The reports claim a train of CNG tanker cars crashed into a train of gasoline tanker cars. that photo is inconsistant with a massive CNG-Gasoline blast.

The NY Times:

Ms. O'Mahony said North Korean officials told her that railroad workers were trying to uncouple two carriages carrying dynamite and link them to another train.

"They got caught in the overhead electric wiring," she said. "The dynamite exploded and that was the cause of the explosion."

The train exploded Thursday afternoon, hitting Ryongchon, a manufacturing center, with the force of a small nuclear bomb, raining debris over a 10-mile radius and sending acrid smoke over the nearby border with China.

With the secretive nation sealed to outside reporters, Chinese and South Korean news media attributed the blast to different kinds of rail cargo: gasoline, liquefied gas, ammonium nitrate and explosives for mining.

Looks like it's going to be a while before we really know what happened.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-23 10:28am

two rail cars filled with dynamite!!!! Jesus Christ that could be hundreds or thousands of tons of TNT! That must not be the right picture.