32 Chinese tourists among 36 dead after bus plunges off bridge in North Korea

BEIJING – A traffic accident in southern North Korea has killed 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans, Chinese officials said Monday.

Another two Chinese tourists were badly injured and were in “acutely serious condition,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It said China had dispatched a medical team accompanied by diplomats to assist the North Korean side.

The accident occurred Sunday night in North Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a regularly scheduled news conference.

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Footage on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed the mangled wreckage of a bus in the dark with rain falling. Rescue vehicles were on the scene, and the injured were shown being treated in a hospital.

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China and North Korea share a lengthy border and a traditional friendship dating back to China’s military intervention on the side of the North in the 1950-53 Korean War. China remains Pyongyang’s largest trading partner, although commerce has dropped off by about 90 per cent under United Nations sanctions.

The ministry described the four North Koreans killed as “workers.” North Korea requires that all visitors be accompanied by minders.

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Other details on the backgrounds of those killed and injured and the circumstances of the accident were not immediately disclosed.

Chinese tourists are among the largest groups of visitors to the isolated, hard-line communist state, where they often pay homage at sites related to China’s participation in the war.