The fearsome picture of devastation from North Korean train explosions near the Chinese border took shape yesterday with initial reports saying 150 were killed, 1,249 injured and 8,200 houses or apartments damaged -- many of them destroyed.
North Korea's government said the explosion occurred when train cars carrying dynamite touched power lines, according to Chris Wardle, an official with the Irish aid agency Concern.
"The numbers we've been told are 150 dead," some of them schoolchildren, he said by telephone from Pyongyang.
Red Cross spokesman John Sparrow in Beijing said the blast had killed at least 54 people and injured 1,249, but that he expected the toll to rise, citing massive damage. The explosion destroyed 1,850 apartments or houses and damaged 6,350, he said.
Initial reports by South Korean media said 3,000 people were killed or hurt in the disaster at a railway station in Ryongchon, a bustling town about 150km north of Pyongyang.
The secretive North's communist government was silent yesterday about the disaster, but invited foreign officials to visit the site today.
"Until that happens, we won't know what really happened there," Wardle said.
Reports varied over what exactly exploded.
"We have been told that the accident was caused by live electrical wire getting in contact with dynamite," apparently while officials were trying to disconnect the carriages and link them up to another train, Wardle said.
Sparrow said the trains were carrying explosives similar to those used in mining. China's Xinhua News Agency reported the blast was blamed on ammonium nitrate -- a chemical used in explosives, rocket fuel and fertilizer -- leaking from one train. South Korea's unification minister said the trains were carrying fuel.
The blast leveled the train station, a school and apartments within a 500m radius, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting Chinese witnesses. It said there were about 500 passengers and railway officials in the station at the time of the explosion.
Ryongchon is the site of chemical and metalworking plants, and has a population of 130,000.
Sparrow said Red Cross workers in the North were distributing tents and blankets to 4,000 families, while the international group was putting together hospital kits containing antibiotics, bandages and anesthetics.
Chinese hospitals near the border were put on "high alert," he said.
There was no sign in Dandong, the Chinese border city nearest to the crash site, of injured people being brought out of North Korea. But the city's three biggest hospitals were preparing for a possible surge of patients.
"We're ready to offer our close neighbor our best medical help anytime," said an official at Dandong Chinese Hospital.
In Seoul, Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said China was urging North Korea to send the injured across the border to hospitals in China. But he said Pyongyang was instead asking China to dispatch relief workers to the scene.
China confirmed the first fatalities yesterday afternoon, saying two Chinese were killed and 12 others injured in the disaster. The Xinhua report had cited the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
US President Donald Trump on Friday said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told him China would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office. Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox News, ahead of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “I will tell you, you know, you have a very similar thing with President Xi of China and Taiwan, but I don’t believe there’s any way it’s going to happen as long as I’m here. We’ll see,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ Special Report. “He told me: ‘I will never do
RSS