Ryongchon disaster

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The Ryongchon disaster was a train disaster that occurred in the town of Ryongchon, North Korea near the border with China on April 22, 2004.

The disaster occurred when a flammable cargo exploded at the railway station at about 1300 local time (0400 UTC). The news was broken by South Korean media outlets, which reported that up to 3,000 people had been killed or injured in the blast and subsequent fires. The North Korean government declared a state of emergency in the region, but little information about the accident has been made public by the notoriously secretive government. Also, the NK government has cut phone lines to the rest of the world, apparently to make reporting more difficult.

Table of contents

1 Effects of the disaster
2 How and why the accident happened

2.1 How the disaster happened
2.2 Why the disaster happened

3 External links

Effects of the disaster

The Red Cross was allowed into the area, in an unusual concession from the North Korean authorities, and has so far been the only outside agency to have had visibility of the disaster area. According to the agency, at least 150 people were killed and 1,249 were injured in the disaster. A wide area was reported to have been affected, with some airborne debris reportedly falling across the border in China. Satellite pictures published by the BBC showed widespread damage in the town, with the Red Cross reporting that 1,850 houses had been flattened and another 6,350 had been damaged or partially destroyed. A school, the railway station and several apartment blocks were also said to have been razed to the ground.

On April 23, the United Nations received an appeal for international aid from North Korea's government.

How and why the accident happened

The cause and nature of the accident have been the subject of considerable confusion, with several different accounts being reported.

How the disaster happened

So far, there have been at least four different versions of what occurred:

It was initially reported that the explosion was the result of a collision between two trains carrying gasoline (petrol) and liquified petroleum gas, possibly donated by China to alleviate the ongoing North Korean fuel shortage.
Diplomats and aid workers in North Korea later suggested that the explosion took place when explosive materials were being shunted in rail cars, possibly being triggered by a collision with a live electric power cable.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that there had been a leak of ammonium nitrate, a substance used in some explosives, as a fertiliser, and in rocket fuel.

Officials of North Korea's Foreign Ministry told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency that the blast was triggered by gunpowder intended for use in an irrigation canal.

Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that another North Korean government source had said that an electrical accident had set off dynamite on one of the trains.

Why the disaster happened

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il passed through the station several hours before the explosion as he returned from a secretive meeting in China. It was suggested that the explosion might have been an assassination attempt but this was treated with widespread scepticism. A widespread conjecture is that one of the trains involved was carrying fuel from China, possibly a shipment that Kim had requested. If the incident did involve a train collision, it has been suggested that the cause of the accident was a miscommunication related to the changes in train schedules due to Kim Jong-il's itinerary.

Other observers have suggested that the poor state of North Korea's railway system may have contributed to the disaster. It accounts for about 90% of freight transportation, with a lack of fuel forcing most trucks and other vehicles off the road, but is poorly maintained and relies on decades-old trains and track.