Word: ryongchon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Returning home one spring five years ago from a secret visit to Beijing in his armored, fully wired train car, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il got an unnerving, firsthand demonstration of the potential downside of technology. A huge explosion ripped through the Ryongchon border station, and some officials initially thought it was an assassination attempt triggered by a cell phone. As it turned out, the fireball was more likely the result of two trains' colliding nearby, possibly as a result of miscommunication about changed schedules stemming from Kim's clandestine travels. But regardless of the actual cause, that still...
...South Korean TV dramas now flooding into the country from China, according to North Korean defectors. In May, Kim took another big step back from greater openness when he shut down North Korea's new cell-phone system. That order came a month after a train mysteriously exploded in Ryongchon station, near the northern border, within hours of Kim's expected passage through the town on his way back from a trip to China. "Kim is still in control," said Peter Beck, head of the Seoul office of the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental organization that studies security issues...
...Last Wednesday, Kim wound up a clandestine 2 1/2-day visit with China's leaders in Beijing?most likely to discuss international concerns over his nuclear-weapons program?and boarded his train for Pyongyang. It proceeded east to Dandong, crossed the North Korean border and passed through the city of Ryongchon. Some nine hours later, something sparked a cataclysmic explosion at the Ryongchon station, reportedly killing 154 people, including 76 school children, and injuring more than 1,000. South Korea's official Yonhap news agency quickly asserted that a state of emergency was declared around Ryongchon and that North Korea...
...When foreign aid workers from Pyongyang arrived on Saturday, they described large parts of Ryongchon as "obliterated." The train station in the center of town had collapsed, as had other buildings, including a nearby school. Those in the immediate vicinity "looked as if a fireball had gone through," said John Sparrow, a Beijing spokesman for the Red Cross, adding that "what was there isn't there anymore." He said a visiting Red Cross official had described "scorched" and damaged buildings radiating for four kilometers in all directions from the station. Rescue operations had apparently ended. Xinhua, quoting the North Korean...
...Despite the devastation, trains on the single rail line between Beijing and Pyongyang, which passes through Ryongchon, continued to run. On future trips to China, though, Kim might consider taking a plane...
| 1 |