North Korean Children Suffer Most from the Yongcheon Blast

Many of the students at Yongcheon Elementary School are listed in critical condition as they were hit by debris or badly burnt during the blast at Yongcheon train station last week, Dong-A Ilbo learned.

Beds were in such short supply that injured children were placed on filing cabinets. They are exposed to infections as the facilities are ill-equipped, unhygienic, and under-supplied.

"It was one of the worst sights I have ever seen,” international aid workers said after visiting a hospital in the city of Sinuiju, urging the international community to move swiftly. “There is no intact equipment and medical supplies are hard to come by, which could lead to a rise in fatalities.”

At the hospital, 60 percent of the approximately 360 blast victims are children. While describing five burned children victims, Richard Ragan, of the World Food Program, said, “Their faces were almost ripped off.”

“We saw a small child, probably seven or eight years old. He was in a coma. His parents were totally distraught. They didn`t know what to do. He wasn`t responding to them," he added.

“"We saw children rolling and moaning in pain, many with a lot of cuts to the face and rudimentary twine stitching," World Food Program Asia regional director Tony Banbury said. “Some children lost their eyesight.” North Korean doctors put the number of victims who became blind at five.

Puertoe Vulthi, a UNICEF representative in Pyongyang, said the blast struck the students who had just finished their sessions. Masood Hyder, the UN humanitarian coordinator in North Korea, said, "Basically, anyone who was looking in the direction of the explosion got it in the face."

North Korean authorities said among the 1,300 injured, 370 are critically wound. Among them, 15 have already died and 50 others are said to be in critical condition, the British daily, Guardian, reported.

What shocked the aid workers the most were the children patients lying on the file cabinet because the hospital ran out of beds in the face of a flood of victims.

Antibiotics, painkillers, and steroids are in critically short supply. Equipments are either out of order or not fully operational because of a power shortage. “I didn’t find any equipment fully working. The hospital is short of about everything,” said Banbury.

Even in normal times, North Korean hospitals are ill-equipped or under-resourced. Even running water comes in short, complicating the treatment of patients.

The danger of infection is grave. “North Korea is at war to keep those injured alive with their poor equipment and medical supplies,” said a Swedish aid worker. “As the situation is now how it is, the death toll may rise.”

“An urgent measure is needed for those injured,” said aid workers. “North Korea disclosed the situation at this hospital sooner than expected because it wants such a measure.”

Dong-Keun Keum gold@donga.com