North Korea finally admitted tonight several hundred people were killed and thousands injured when trains carrying explosives and blew up in a station, and asked for international help to deal with the disaster.
The state - the world's most closed society - opened its borders to international aid but still kept the disaster a secret from its citizens. "We need the help of the international community," said Mr Pak Gil, North Korea's ambassador to the UN.
Foreign aid workers and diplomats are being taken tomorrow to the site near the Chinese border where the explosion destroyed 1,850 buildings and damaged another 6,350, said the Red Cross.
The accident happened yesterday when two trains carrying explosives either collided or struck live wire in the bustling town of Ryongchon, 12 miles from the Chinese border.
At least 150 people were killed, including children, and more than 1,000 injured, according to an Irish aid worker in Pyongyang.
Speaking from Pyongyang, Concern regional director Ms Anne O'Mahony said the North Korean government had only this morning released information about the crash, which is thought to have killed or injured up to 3,000.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms O'Mahony said the government had said two carriages of the train containing dynamite had got caught in the overhead electric wiring when workers were trying to disconnect the carriages and the dynamite had exploded.
Ms O'Mahony said: "They've [the government] said that 150 people died in the explosion, including some schoolchildren; some buildings have collapsed; 800 residences were destroyed [and] over 1,000 people were injured."
She added the government had invited representatives from the international community to visit the site tomorrow morning.
At the time, an international passenger train carrying many ethnic Chinese was parked in the station, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.