Foreign News Coverage of Yongcheon Explosion

The world’s major news media outlets such as AP, AFP, CNN in the U.S.A., The New York Times, and the BBC in England were all quick to provide coverage of the large explosion at the Yongcheon train station in North Korea on April 23.

Major foreign news agencies predicted that “in light of the secretiveness of North Korean society, it will take some time before the exact cause of the explosion is disclosed.” But they made few references to speculation that the explosion may have been aimed at North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

--News Agencies Report on the Seriousness of the Disaster

The AP reported in detail the circumstances of the Youngcheon train station explosion and the movements of South Korea and China in connection with the blast incident, saying, “that North Korea declared a state of emergency in the surrounding area of the explosion shows the seriousness of the disaster.”

Reporting the news of the declaration of a state of emergency, CNN also broadcasted every hour that South Korea had disclosed its intention to help North Korea. CNN went on to report that “the North Korean authorities and news media gave no responses to the blast incident.”

The BBC reported that “North Korea has cut international telephone lines to the area to prevent information about the explosion from going out of the country,” in its report on how the incident occurred.

AFP quoted a high official in South Korea as saying that “the explosion appears to have happened when a train carrying flammable gas changed its track.”

--Foreign News Agencies Refrain from Speculation

The AP predicted that “North Korea seems not to have elucidated the circumstances of the incident because they are nervous about how the world will respond to the incident.”

Reuters reported that many international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), which is active in Pyongyang, are taking an active part in helping North Korea by dispatching its members to the site of the explosion.

China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted the Chinese Embassy at Pyongyang as saying that “this incident was caused by the leaking of nitric acid ammonium from a car in the train.”

The New York Times reported that “American officials, who have viewed the satellite photo in the explosion area, said although there was clearly a massive explosion, they could not judge whether the train was involved in the incident by satellite photo alone, or what caused the incident.” The newspaper said that the speculation that the explosion might have been aimed at North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may not be true because the explosion occurred nine hours after the train had passed through Yongcheon.

Dong-Won Kim daviskim@donga.com