Beijing-Pyongyang trains, tours running normally
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-23 14:46

Trains between Beijing and Pyongyang were running normally after a train explosion in North Korea was reported to have killed or injured up to 3,000 people, a station official and a diplomatic source said on Friday.

A train from Beijing arrived in Pyongyang around 7 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) on Thursday, hours after the accident reported to have taken place at 0400 GMT, a diplomat in Pyongyang told Reuters.

Another train from Pyongyang pulled into Beijing Railway Station at 8:34 a.m. local time (0034 GMT) on Friday, a station official said.

"You saw the news in the papers? No problems. The train collision did not disrupt tour groups," Wang Jing, a travel agent in the Chinese border city of Dandong, told Reuters by telephone.

"Things are normal. Tour groups set off today," Wang said, declining further comment.

The Beijing-Pyongyang link goes through Ryongchon county, where the two trains are believed to have collided at the station in the town of Ryongchon.

A Beijing-based businessman said his contacts in Pyongyang indicated the scale of devastation was not as bad as reported in foreign media.

"My lot in Pyongyang are saying it's all right," said the businessman, who asked not to be identified. "I'm saying 'Can we travel in by train?' And they're saying 'yes'."

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