The costs of juche

An independent aid group based in South Korea is claiming that 110 people were killed in a June 9th gas pipeline explosion in North Korea. Stories here, here, and here.

From the North County Times article:

Good Friends did not provide a source for the report. Some of its previous reports about accidents and natural disasters in North Korea, however, have proven reliable.

Lee Seung-yong, the group's project coordinator, said the information came from "various channels," but refused to elaborate.

The independent group, which provides aid to the North, said that the explosion occurred while people gathered to scoop up gasoline leaking from a crack in the pipeline, which runs through rice fields. The victims were engulfed in flames, Good Friends said.

The fire was not extinguished until the next day, the group said.

The group used both the Korean words for oil and gasoline in its newsletter, but used gasoline more often.

South Korea's Unification Ministry, in charge of relations with North Korea, said it was trying to verify the report. The National Intelligence Service, South Korea's spy agency, also said it was trying to confirm it.

11 days later now, and all the information the outside world has about this comes from a private aid organization. Of course, this could just mean that the story lacks veracity, but if it is indeed true, most rational countries would have asked for outside help by now. Just another tragic example of the triumph of a self-reliant ideology over concern for human lives.