Seoul: Secretive North Korea remained silent today (April 23, 2004) about a catastrophic train explosion that reportedly killed as many as 3,000 people, even as neighbouring China confirmed the first fatalities of the disaster, saying two Chinese were killed and a dozen injured.

The disaster occurred when fuel-laden trains collided, South Korea's Unification Ministry said. It took place at a North Korean railroad station near the Chinese border yesterday, igniting an explosion that rained debris for more than 16 km around, South Korean media said. As many as 3,000 people might have been killed or injured, according to the media reports.

A brief statement by China's Foreign Ministry and a report by China's State news agency Xinhua that quoted the Chinese Embassy in the North Korean capital Pyongyang offered the first official confirmation of casualties.

The Communist Government in Pyongyang declared an emergency in the area while cutting off international telephone lines to prevent crash details from leaking out, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. The North's official KCNA news agency still had not mentioned the disaster yet, a full day later.

It was not immediately clear what caused the disaster. But local media reports quoted South Korean officials as saying it appeared to be an accident, and not linked to a reported trip through the station hours earlier by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as he returned from China.