April 23rd 04, 10:02 PM
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Frank White wrote:
In article , says...
Apparently a South Korean news agency has reported that two gasoline
loaded trains have collided in North Korea, killing thousands and
leveling an entire town. Radio Exterior de Espana noted that there has
been no independent confirmation of this. NBC News (US) has reported
that it was near the border with China and that phone lines between NK
and China have been cut in order to prevent info from getting out. I
don't have my Yaesu hokked up so I can't tune around and see what others
are saying. What's Radio Korea Intl (NOT VoK, but South Korea)
reporting? Anybody hear anything?
The BBC was airing initial reports within minutes. True, those
reports were mainly "There may have been a massive disaster, but
NK has cut all communication"; but they were on it.
And they stayed on it through the day, providing details as they
got them while digging up background like interviews with
reporters familiar with North Korea and its determination to
control all information going in and out of the country; a
talk with the head of a civilian satellite imaging company who was
unable to talk about what might have happened yesterday (since
the satellites weren't in position to see such immediate
details) but COULD talk about how previous scans showed that
the railway station was a rabbit warren of interconnecting,
converging tracks and it would be easy for trains to run into
each other there (and that huge numbers of houses were right there
besides the tracks); a discussion of how the NK railroad system is
the SAME one set up by the Japanese more than 60 years ago when
they held Korea as a colonial possession and is in terrible shape,
but is the NK government's main means of transport because it's
all they've got that runs...
The BBC's coverage was VERY informative!
And on the flip side, I notice that US domestic shortwave
braodcasters - the looney tune section - are already insisting
it was really an accidental nuke detonation the North Koreans
are trying to disguise as an conventional accident...
FW
CBS (US) is reporting this morning that the trains were filled with
dynamite and that they ran into a downed live power line, thus touching
off the explosion.
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