Red Cross seeks more information

This handout photo by the World Food Programme taken on Saturday and received yesterday shows heavy equipment being used to clear away some of the rubble left from the April 22 explosion at the railway station in Ryongchon, some 20km from the Chinese border. The Red Cross said it urgently needed more information to help the victims of the railway blast which killed over 161 people, injured some 1,300 others and destroyed thousands of buildings. PHOTO: AFP

A team of aid workers and diplomats was Saturday shown the huge destruction in Ryongchon near the Chinese border, but they were not shown hospitals where many of the 1,300 injured were being treated.

Stalinist North Korea is the world's most isolated and secretive nation. It has a poor record of releasing information and aid organisations that work inside the country are subject to tight restrictions.

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Thursday's explosion, which North Korea said was caused by a collision of rail wagons carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil, destroyed virtually everything within 500 metres (yards) of the railway station.

"The medical infrastructure in North Korea is very challenged, so for us the most important question is whether or not there are enough medical supplies to treat those that are injured," John Sparrow, of the International Federation of Red Cross, told AFP.

"Our impression is that we were given insufficient information on this front," said Sparrow.

The joint UN-Red Cross team was meeting Sunday in the capital Pyongyang to discuss further aid plans for Ryongchong, where nearly 2,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged leaving many homeless.

"It is very important not to look only at the short-term needs as many thousand families have now lost their homes," said Red Cross official Niels Juel after Saturday's assessment tour.