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DANDONG, China -- Six days following the powerful train explosion that ripped apart the North Korean town of Ryongchon, vivid evidence of the wretched conditions faced by locals is pouring into the Chinese border town of Dandong.
In particular, distressing news is pilling up from Chinese who have been to the disaster site to look in on ethnic-Chinese relatives who reside there.
One source in Dandong described the situation as "on the brink of death." The critically wounded are dying off as time passes, but because of poor medical facilities, it's common for people to just look on helplessly, he said.
In particular, he said that cries ring out from children who can no longer bear the pain in their bodies broken by debris and fragments from the explosion, but neither their parents nor medical personnel can give them pain killers.
He said, "I went to one Chinese medicine practitioner's, and there were several wounded being treated there. The skin on most of the patients' faces was almost peeled off, and in particular, children were crying with their eyes bandaged."
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Young boys injured from the train explosion in Ryongchon Station lie in a hospital in Sinuiju, North Korea on Sunday. Many children's faces were severely burned from the accident.
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Everything within a 500-meter radius of the explosion has been turned almost completely to ruin, another source said, but systematic reconstruction efforts were not taking place.
With about half the city of Ryongchon destroyed, thousands have been left homeless, and most of them -- with the exception of those who have found shelter with nearby relatives -- have been reduced to camping outdoors. In particular, when the weather turned cold Monday, blankets that appear to have been provided by the outside as emergency assistance gave the homeless much strength, said the source, but the number given fell way short of the number needed.
Locals are becoming increasingly panicked as time goes on, because not only was the accident a large-scale disaster, but the North Korean authorities have not been carrying out proper rescue operations.
Firstly, locals in Ryongchon are brushing aside the death toll resulting from the calamity claimed by the North Korean authorities -- 160 -- claiming the total is a "laughable number." One source said, "There's still talk going around Ryongchon that the total dead will surpass 2,000... You can't believe everything the locals there say, but the scale of the losses is likely to exceed greatly that which has been officially announced."
Moreover, perhaps because the survivors are so pessimistic about their own situation, but it's said that resentment against North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who passed through the area on the day of the accident, is on the rise. Because of this, talk is spreading among locals that, "some force tried to assassinate Kim, but killed only innocent residence."
Talk is also going round that security personnel got wind of an assassination plot and had Kim's train route hastily changed; his train was originally scheduled to pass through Ryongchon, but some are saying his train passed through nearby Baekhwa Station instead.
An ethnic Chinese living in North Korea who divulged information about the Ryongchon area said, "It's known that Kim stopped for about an hour at Sinuiju Station and consulted with North Korean officials in his train... If one takes this into consideration, it's possible that his travel times were changed from those that were originally known."
About the cause of the accident, too, evidence to the contrary of official announcements is being raised. Another source in Dandong said, "Locals say this accident was caused by a dynamite explosion."
One South Korean businessman who works in Dandong said, "The various rumors that are running wild are evidence of the panicked public sentiment in the area affected by the disaster... The North Korean authorities must quickly accept relief aid from the international community and cope with public sentiment in the area."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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