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North Korean Train Crash; please post news as you find it
Topic Started: Apr 22 2004, 06:20 PM (166 Views)
Wichita
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The Adminstrator wRench
Read about it here

Our prayers and condolences to the citizens of North Korea and (apparently) China who were killed or injured and to their families as well.
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24thcenstfan
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Something Wicked This Fae Comes
This is a terrible tragedy. My prayers are definitely with the people of North Korea and China, those who may be injured but are still alive and the families who are waiting to find out if their loved ones were just injured or worse killed.

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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
Sounds terrible - 3 trains involved.
Up to 3000 killed in Korean train crash
N Korea quiet on train crash reports
N Korea train disaster wounds thousands
Posted Image
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captain_proton_au
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A Robot in Disguise

Just saw this on the news, its strange no info is being leaked out of the chinese side of the border. The number of casualties seems huge for a train crash. Even if it was a passenger train colliding with a freight(tanker) train, there wouldnt be 3000 on a passenger train would there?

Sounds terrible.

And where did the picture come from?
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
A picture taken on South Korean channel YTN shows Ryongchon train station at the time , a North Korean railway station near the Chinese border (AFP/YTN) Posted Image

A commuter train was at the station on a different line (full of Chinese commuters ? and homes are very close to the station and line - sat photo.) 3000 people is not beyond the realms of possibility.
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Adrian
Lieutenant Commander
NPR is reporting that the Noth Korean leader's train had passed through that same line only a couple of hours earlier. While they doubt it was an assasination attempt, it's probably one of the reasons their keeping so silent about it.
Another reason the casualties may be so high is the lack of medical care North Korea is one of the poorest nations and even their their best hospitals are bad jokes by Western standards. The reporter relates the last time he went to Pyongang, he went to the best hospital in the country. They used old beer cans for IV drips.
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
Adrian:
That's out of left-field . Who do you reckon would try that ? Are you inferring a micro-Nuke might (suitcase / backpack sized Nuke) have caused the explosion ?

No I don't think so, but time will tell I guess.
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
Latest - 54 dead, 1,249 wounded in North Korea train crash: Red Cross .

Still a big disaster.
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Hoss
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Don't make me use my bare hands on you.
It turns out that the train was carrying explosives. I got that from Rueters.

What type of explosives and what their purpose was, I don't know.
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Wichita
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The Adminstrator wRench
^^

Something about the explosives were to be used to blast an irrigation canal ...
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Fesarius
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Admiral
Goodness, that's a lot of people. Thank you for posting the link to the story.
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bonja
Commodore
Here's more from Reuters. The current explaination is 'carelessness'.

Caused by 'carelessness'

There was no mention of explosives but the train was said to have been carrying fertilizer (ammonium nitrate).
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
Wichita:
NH4NO3 (Ammonia Nitrate) to be used as fertiliser , but in the presence of an accelerant and detonation energy source can and regularly is used as a high explosive.N. Korea Cites Human Error in Crash .

Quote:
 
DANDONG, China - North Korea (news - web sites) said Saturday that careless handling of volatile ammonium nitrate fertilizer contributed to the train blast that killed hundreds of people,

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the blast was touched off by "electrical contact caused by carelessness during the shunting of wagons loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer

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The explosion destroyed 1,850 apartments or houses and damaged 6,350, said Sparrow, citing officials in the North. The Red Cross reported at least 54 people killed and 1,249 injured...


This is the reason why moves are being taken by some State Governments here to ban the sale of NH4NO3 as fertiliser here in Australia. It is also widely used in the mining industry as a high explosive (both underground and in open cut mining).

There is one of Australia's largest NH4NO3 plants near one of my regular fishing haunts on Kooragang Island where 1000's of tons of the material are held in inventory in bulk bags (500 kg) in a bulk handling facility that is unsecure , a truck could drive in , and take tons of the stuff - the gates to the bulk handling facility are as far I can tell, are always open and I have never seen a guard. This is an appalling situation.

The material is regularly moved about the countryside , and through town , in bulk on freight trains and B-Doubles.
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