Source: IFRC
Date: 28 Apr 2004

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The child victims of DPRK rail explosion

by John Sparrow
It was lunchtime. The school in Ryongchon was emptying and the children headed homeward. Then came the explosion. The
youngsters were cut down by the blast and flying debris, and burned terribly by the wall of fire that followed.

Of the 161 people known to have died in the North Korean rail explosion, 76 were children. So are more than two thirds of
the most seriously hurt of the 1,300 injured people. Their faces are burned and lacerated. Their eye injuries are
horrific.

Ryongchon, a town of 27,000 people in North Pyongan Province of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was
devastated last Thursday when two rail wagons containing explosive material blew up while being shunted in a siding.

The blast obliterated the station and all around it, damaging buildings in a four-kilometre radius. Around 40 per cent of
the town has been affected, with 1,850 homes destroyed or uninhabitable, another 6,300 partially damaged, many public
buildings shattered and electricity and water supplies disrupted.

But amid the suffering of this blighted town there is no greater grief than that of mothers weeping for their children.

The impact of the explosion will be felt for months and, in some cases, years to come, the International Federation said
on Monday as it launched a 1.6 million Swiss franc (US$ 1.23 million) emergency appeal that seeks to address the short-
term and longer-term needs of up to 10,000 people for 12 months.

The Federation wants to replenish Red Cross relief stocks needed in the emergency phase, meet the household needs of
homeless and destitute families for a period of four months, and provide long-term material and medical support for the
seriously injured. It is also seeking support to integrate rehabilitation and reconstruction activities into existing
programmes of the DPRK Red Cross.

"The suffering and destitution we are witnessing is not something an emergency relief operation alone can deal with,"
Niels Juel, the Federation's Regional Disaster Management Delegate said. "Thousands of people have lost most or all of
what they had and they were already struggling. They must be given a chance to recover and that requires sustained
assistance."

For now their most urgent needs are food, basic hygiene materials, kitchen equipment, clothing and fuel for cooking. The
disruption of the water supply by the explosion must also be addressed, Juel said, and a Red Cross intervention has begun.

After the blast, thousands of kitchen sets, blankets, water containers, tarpaulins, water purification tablets and first-
aid kits were distributed quickly from a Red Cross relief centre at Sinuiju, five kilometres from the disaster, but stocks
are now seriously depleted.

Support for the overwhelmed health care system is another immediate priority, Juel said. Medical supplies, including
antibiotics, basic essential drugs and anaesthetics, have been distributed by the DPRK Red Cross and the World Health
Organization but there is continuing need.

The demand for medical supplies can be met for now but this is placing enormous pressure on other essential Federation-
supported DPRK Red Cross programmes. Medical stocks are maintained in the country to help meet the day-to-day needs of
hospitals and clinics. Up to 70 per cent of their supply comes from quarterly Red Cross distributions but stocks are now
being diverted to the disaster area, Juel said.

"That means medical facilities elsewhere in four provinces will not get all the antibiotics, anaesthetics and basic
essential drugs from us that they depend on. That could become life threatening," he explained.

The Red Cross maintains 50 county medical warehouses, as well as five regional relief centres and a central Red Cross
warehouse in Pyongyang. "So we had stocks, and they come in on a regular basis. But now we need replenishment, fast," Juel
said. Supplies normally sufficient for six months may now be consumed in a matter of weeks.

But donor support has been fast. The European Commission's Humanitarian Office (ECHO) had cash support to the Federation
within 72 hours of the disaster. The appeal has brought support from USAID and the American Red Cross, AusAID and the
Australian Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross, the Japanese Red Cross, the Republic of Korea Red Cross, and the Swedish Red
Cross.