3,000 dead in North Korea

[Y2A]

SEOUL, South Korea - Up to 3,000 people were 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 (search) had passed through the same spot.

Almost immediately following the crash of two trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum, rumors spread that it might have been a deliberate attempt on Kim's life.

But senior Defense Department officials told Fox News there wasn't any information to substantiate such theories and the collision was more likely a tragic accident.

North Korean authorities placed a total news blackout on information about the crash, according to Chinese news reports, taking such drastic measures as cutting international phone lines in and around the town of Ryongchon (search), where the collision happened.

North Korea declared a state of emergency after the crash.

"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.

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.

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.

A substantial number of Chinese citizens were believed to be among the presumed 3,000 victims, sources in China said.

Many of the survivors were transferred back to China to receive treatment, which seemed to be how news of the catastrophe spread despite the North Korea-imposed news blackout.

The Yonhap report of the state-of-emergency declaration gave no details. It said officials of the secretive North Korean government had put in place a "type of state of emergency" around the town of Ryongchon.

In a sign of the accident's magnitude, the government cut international phone lines to prevent news of the crash from leaking across its borders, Yonhap said, citing no sources.

James Lilley (search), 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.

[lucid]

I can't wait to see how ihatebush and others freaks are gonna put this on the US. I'll start the first consperacy theory; Bush was driving one of the trains.

[Invader Zim]

Originally posted by [email protected] 22 2004, 07:54 PM
I can't wait to see how ihatebush and others freaks are gonna put this on the US. I'll start the first consperacy theory; Bush was driving one of the trains.
People who cant read should not post: -

"But senior Defense Department officials told Fox News there wasn't any information to substantiate such theories and the collision was more likely a tragic accident."

Idiot

[lucid]

Originally posted by Enigma+Apr 22 2004, 07:58 PM--> (Enigma @ Apr 22 2004, 07:58 PM)
[email protected] 22 2004, 07:54 PM
I can't wait to see how ihatebush and others freaks are gonna put this on the US. I'll start the first consperacy theory; Bush was driving one of the trains.
People who cant read should not post: -

"But senior Defense Department officials told Fox News there wasn't any information to substantiate such theories and the collision was more likely a tragic accident."

Idiot [/b]
Your the idiot that cannot see sarcasm.

Stupid fuck tool.

[Y2A]

Originally posted by Enigma+Apr 22 2004, 07:58 PM--> (Enigma @ Apr 22 2004, 07:58 PM)
[email protected] 22 2004, 07:54 PM
I can't wait to see how ihatebush and others freaks are gonna put this on the US. I'll start the first consperacy theory; Bush was driving one of the trains.
People who cant read should not post: -

"But senior Defense Department officials told Fox News there wasn't any information to substantiate such theories and the collision was more likely a tragic accident."

Idiot [/b]
The NK government is being very quite about this and there is not much reports about it coming out of NK about this. Although, I actually wouldn't say that U.S intervention isn't a possibility. But it most likely is just an accident.

[Invader Zim]

Originally posted by lucid+Apr 22 2004, 08:01 PM--> (lucid @ Apr 22 2004, 08:01 PM)
Originally posted by [email protected] 22 2004, 07:58 PM

[email protected] 22 2004, 07:54 PM
I can't wait to see how ihatebush and others freaks are gonna put this on the US. I'll start the first consperacy theory; Bush was driving one of the trains.
People who cant read should not post: -

"But senior Defense Department officials told Fox News there wasn't any information to substantiate such theories and the collision was more likely a tragic accident."

Idiot
Your the idiot that cannot see sarcasm.

Stupid fuck tool. [/b]
I can see it, but it only works when you use it in an appropriate situation. You managed to fail in this easy task.

I hate arguing with fools.

[Loknar]

what ever happened, rest assured, it's americas fault.

[RedAnarchist]

Yes, America did it Loknar. <_<

It was caused by disruption as the dictator Jong-il only ever travels by train an so the tracks were closed as his train went through the station.

This tragedy was first reported by South Korea, but how did they find out about it?

Hopefully this isnt posted due to capitalist delusions that the PDRK is Communist. North Korea is about as Communist as McDonald&#39;s.

[Hoppe]

Many of the survivors were transferred back to China to receive treatment, which seemed to be how news of the catastrophe spread despite the North Korea-imposed news blackout.

Undoubtly will the families of North-Korean survivors be put in detention camps for undermining the revolution by not using DPRK state-of-the-art medidal facilities.

[RedAnarchist]

They&#39;ve confirmed the reports.

TRAIN DEATHS CONFIRMED

A Red Cross official says at least 54 people have died and 1,249 have been injured in the North Korea train blast.

The organisation said 1,850 homes have been totally destroyed, 6,350 households were damaged and 12 public buildings levelled.

Earlier, China confirmed the first fatalities in what is believed to have been a huge explosion.

Secretive communist North Korea remained silent on the disaster, despite confirmation of Thursday afternoon&#39;s blast in the bustling town of Ryongchon by the governments in Seoul and Beijing.

South Korea&#39;s Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said Friday the explosion was triggered by a collision of fuel-laden trains.


In a dispatch from Pyongyang, China&#39;s official Xinhua news agency, without citing sources, said the explosion was caused by the leaking of ammonium nitrate in one of the trains.



Blast was in the bustling town of Ryongchon



Ammonium nitrate is used in some explosives, as a fertilizer, and in rocket fuel.


The Red Cross also said the disaster was caused by rail wagons loaded with explosives.

China confirmed has confirmed that two Chinese were killed and 12 others injured in the disaster.

Among the 12 injured Chinese, two sustained serious injuries and the remaining 10 were lightly wounded, Xinhua said.

North Korea declared an emergency in the area while cutting off international telephone lines to prevent crash details from leaking out, South Korea&#39;s Yonhap news agency said.

The North&#39;s official KCNA news agency still had not mentioned the disaster by Friday, a full day later.


www.sky.com/skynews

[Ian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 22 2004, 07:52 PM
Up to 3,000 people were killed or injured
Fuck.

[Urban Rubble]

what ever happened, rest assured, it&#39;s americas fault.

Yes, we are really that stupid, blaming a train crash on the U.S. God you guys are fucking idiots.

I wonder if people are suffering due to the isolated nature of North Korean society. They have all this help ready to be given (S Korea, Red Cross, even the U.S) but nobody knows how to get it there. Chinese border towns have apparently been filled with injured.

[commie kg]

The BBC was reporting that people 10 miles away in China were injured. How does that work?

[Misodoctakleidist]

Originally posted by [email protected] 23 2004, 08:29 AM
Undoubtly will the families of North-Korean survivors be put in detention camps for undermining the revolution by not using DPRK state-of-the-art medidal facilities.
Oh, that&#39;s like a dagger to the heart of all us avid Kim Jong Il supporters&#33;

[Hoppe]

Originally posted by [email protected] 23 2004, 03:49 PM
Oh, that&#39;s like a dagger to the heart of all us avid Kim Jong Il supporters&#33;
Between the Stalin and Mao apologists there must be some fans of him as well.

The BBC just reported that DPRK refused to let North-Korean vicitims be treated in Chinese hospitals and instead, the Red Cross etc, had to go to the station. So my comment was a bit premature.

[New Tolerance]

Originally posted by commie [email protected] 23 2004, 03:40 PM
The BBC was reporting that people 10 miles away in China were injured. How does that work?
Mr. Wong was walking down the street one day when a low flying, smoking train car from North Korea landed on him...

well, given the size of the blast, smaller fragments can fly quite a distance.

[Nickademus]

ok well the crash happened near the border so there ya go ... thats how shit could be felt in another country. as to the cause some sources now say it was an electrical line that went down on one train ... death toll estimates are around 100 .. but no one knows for sure cause well n. korea isn&#39;t sayin&#39; a damned thing about it. its all hush hush there. it will be interesting to see if it ever comes out in n. korea but by that time i&#39;m sure canada will have lost interest.

but it wasn&#39;t a conspiracy thing (damned x-files&#33;), it sounds like it was just a freak accident. they do happen.

[MiDnIgHtMaRaUdEr]

So is anyone here a Kim Jong Il supporter? (Besides Chairman Mao who supports just about everyone so long as their have slanted eyes, I bet he would support the Nazi party, so long as it was the one in Japan).