The Trading Floor

[Arctec]

SEOUL, South Korea — As many as 3,000 people were killed or injured Thursday when two trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas collided and exploded in a North Korean train station near the Chinese border, South Korean media reported.



The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il (search), reportedly had passed through the station as he returned from China hours earlier, South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN, reported.

The number killed or injured could reach 3,000, YTN said, citing unidentified sources on the Chinese side of the border.

"The area around Ryongchon (search) station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted witnesses as saying. "Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuju," a North Korean town on the border with China, the agency said.

Yonhap, quoting witnesses in the Chinese city of Dandong on the border with the North, said the explosion occurred about 1 p.m. at Ryongchon. It said Kim passed through nine hours earlier, returning to Pyongyang. Ryongchon is about 12 miles from the Chinese border.

Yang Jong-hwa (search), a spokeswoman of South Korea's Unification Ministry, said her organization could not immediately confirm the reports. The ministry is in charge of relations with North Korea.

The Defense Ministry likewise was not commenting.

"We are aware of the news reports, but we will not make any comments at this stage," said a spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

YTN reported that the causalities included Chinese living in the North Korean border region, and that Chinese in Dandong were desperate to learn about their relatives.

Some of the injured were evacuated to hospitals in Dandong, it said.

Chinese and North Korean traders frequently cross the border at Dandong (search), a bustling industrial city on Yalu River.

North Korea's state-run news agency on Thursday confirmed that Kim had made a secretive trip to China on Monday through Wednesday, but carried no comments on the reported explosion.

The accident resembled a disaster in Iran on Feb. 18, when runaway train cars carrying fuel and industrial chemicals derailed in the town Neyshabur, setting off explosions that destroyed five villages. At least 200 people were killed.