REFILING: 4TH LD: N. Korean blast caused by electrical accident: gov't sources

0 Comments | Asian Political News, April 26, 2004

PYONGYANG, April 23 Kyodo

(EDS: CHANGES HEADLINE)

An electrical accident that set off dynamite being carried in train wagons caused the massive train explosion in the North Korean city Ryongchon on Thursday, North Korean government sources told Kyodo News in Pyongyang on Friday.

The sources said the wagons were being shunted at Ryongchon Station, 50 kilometers north of the capital, when an electrical cable accidentally touched one of the cars, triggering a blast that killed 54 people, injured 1,249, destroyed 1,850 buildings and damaged 6,350 more.

The North Korean sources said the dynamite was to be used for blasting operations in large-scale sewerage construction.

Earlier, a United Nations official in Pyongyang told Kyodo News in a telephone interview from Beijing that North Korea has asked for international help in dealing with the disaster.

Brendan McDonald, head of the U.N. office for coordination of humanitarian affairs in Pyongyang, said he was at meeting with the North Korean government at 4 p.m. Friday in which the government confirmed the accident occurred at 12:10 p.m. Thursday.

The North Korean side said the accident was between two train wagons that were being shunted on a siding, not a collision of two trains as had been previously believed.

Red Cross officials in Beijing said earlier the blast came from commercial mining explosives.

McDonald said he was told a cable accidentally touched the wagons being shunted, triggering the massive explosion.

He said the North Koreans informed all diplomatic missions in Pyongyang, including China's, about the accident and asked them for help in dealing with it.

He added the North Korean Red Cross, which has a warehouse near the border with China, is rushing blankets and water to the blast site, along with other relief and rescue goods.

The World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Red Cross have already earmarked $100,000 for initial relief goods, McDonald told Kyodo. The money will be used first for intravenous fluids and medical kits for the victims of the explosion, he said.

A mission from the United Nations in Pyongyang will visit the blast site Saturday and prepare a report to be filed with U.N. relief offices in Geneva, he added. The report is to outline what relief goods and other assistance is required in Ryongchon.

In Beijing, a Red Cross spokesman said facilities in North Korea are ready to accept up to 4,000 people left homeless by the explosion.

''Our conclusion...is that the casualty numbers will increase as the evening goes on,'' said John Sparrow, regional information delegate with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Beijing.

''This is a scene of a great disaster,'' he said. ''What we are talking about is great destruction.''

The Red Cross in North Korea can provide beds for 4,000 homeless people ''immediately'' and offer antibiotics and anesthetics to hospitals in the area, Sparrow said, emphasizing that the post-operation procedures would be critical.

On the China side of the border, hospitals in Dandong also prepared Friday to handle people injured, a medical source there said.

Five major hospitals, which include one that specializes in trauma injuries, have done everything possible to prepare for an unknown number of injuries, an official from the Dandong Chinese Medicine Hospital said. The hospitals received official notice that if the accident victims come, the hospitals must help.

A staff member at the trauma injury hospital said the facility was as ready as possible, but its 50 beds were largely full.

As of late Friday, there were no confirmed reports of people crossing the border to get medical care.

Dandong, population 2.4 million, is near the international border near the Yellow Sea coast.

The Red Cross delegate in Beijing was unsure whether China's help would be necessary but said the China Red Cross was fully ready.

The two governments must agree before any North Koreans could enter the hospitals. A spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said leaders from the two countries were discussing what to do as of noon Friday.

The International Red Cross will also consider helping if North Korea requests it, said the Beijing-based Red Cross communications director. He said the Red Cross could send people, aid or money.

One Chinese person died, two were seriously injured and another 10 suffered minor injuries, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

North Korean military hospitals are in good condition, but average hospitals lack medicine and facilities, said Tom Tobback, a North Korea consultant in Beijing.

''I think they have the infrastructure in place to handle this scale of this kind of disaster, but the medicines and equipment are probably in low supply,'' Tobback said.

North Korea has hospitals of every level down to the county, and most are about 300 beds, said a relief worker based in Pyongyang, who had not heard the news as of Friday morning. ''But in any country, you're going to struggle with these kinds of numbers.''