North Korea asks for international aid

[Rogue 9]

DANDONG, China/SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) said Friday several hundred people were killed and thousands injured in a train explosion and issued a rare appeal for international help to deal with the disaster.


Britain's Foreign Office quoted North Korean officials putting the death toll at several hundred in the blast that razed part of the town of Ryongchon, near the Chinese border.


"North Korean officials are saying there are several hundred dead and several thousand injured," the Foreign Office spokeswoman told Reuters in London.


In Geneva, the United Nations (news - web sites) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it received a request for international help from Pyongyang Friday afternoon.

Source

[Shinova]

So who killed Kim and made themselves leader?



j/k

This is pretty rare.

[Aaron]

DANDONG, China/SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) said Friday several hundred people were killed and thousands injured in a train explosion and issued a rare appeal for international help to deal with the disaster.


Britain's Foreign Office quoted North Korean officials putting the death toll at several hundred in the blast that razed part of the town of Ryongchon, near the Chinese border.


"North Korean officials are saying there are several hundred dead and several thousand injured," the Foreign Office spokeswoman told Reuters in London.


In Geneva, the United Nations (news - web sites) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it received a request for international help from Pyongyang Friday afternoon.

Source

Why are they asking for aid? They should be able to handle this themselves. I'm not saying that we should deny them humanitarian assistance but this seems like one of Kim's ploys to get western aid.

[Xenophobe3691]

Usually he wants food and stuff, since his country's starving to the point of cannibalism. Let's see what he asks for now...

[frigidmagi]

North Korea's media have made no mention of Thursday's blast but the reclusive and impoverished communist state has accepted offers of help from international aid and relief agencies.

North Korean television devoted its evening news broadcast to reports on Kim's China trip and did not mention the disaster.

Here's why their asking for international, or least a secondary reason. They don't want to admit to their citizens that it happened, but if they bring in the recuse and medical people they need, word will get out.

Solution: Get outsiders to do it for you.

However, there's also the fact that they just may not have the personnal and resources to clean up after this...

[Aaron]

Here's why their asking for international, or least a secondary reason. They don't want to admit to their citizens that it happened, but if they bring in the recuse and medical people they need, word will get out.

Solution: Get outsiders to do it for you.

However, there's also the fact that they just may not have the personnal and resources to clean up after this...

What would they stand to gain from covering it up within there own country?

[frigidmagi]

I have no bloody clue, but they are. Otherwise why refuse to report it?

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

Given the lies as truth of the Stalinist state media, the fact they are admitting to hundreds of dead indicates thousands in reality.
Asking for foreign aid means to me it is a catastrophy of huge proportions, coldheartedly to be exploited. People already weakened by prolonged hunger don't fair well in times of crisis. Budgets stretched past the point of sanity don't have well supplied disaster relief, in terms of both manpower and material.
Just how much of the emergency relief will go to the truly needy, and how much will either help feed his army or be resold for hard currency?
Just how many will die from broken window letting in just enough cold to finish the weakest from exposure?

The thought is so ugly, I feel bad even stating such a loathsome idea, but such govermnments never fail to underwhelm me in their treatment of their people.
Remember the Ethiopian famine of the 70s? Footage of airdropped food being stolen at gunpoint from starving destperate people, loaded onto trucks, and resold on the world market to generate revinue for weapons.
The thought of giving ANYTHING to such a state is almost as bad as allowing them to die and not even lifting a well fed fat finger to help.

I hate knowing so much about the world and the way people truly are sometimes.

[Rogue 9]

I hate knowing so much about the world and the way people truly are sometimes.

Or at least how Stalinist leaders truly are all the time.