Death toll unknown in building collapse
SEOUL, South Korea — A 23-story apartment building that might have housed more than 90 families collapsed last week in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, a South Korean government official said yesterday, after the North reported a “serious” accident at a construction site.
Earlier yesterday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported that the accident occurred Tuesday in the Pyongchon district of Pyongyang, blaming “sloppy building” and “irresponsible supervision and control.” It said there were “human casualties” but did not give figures.
An official at the Ministry of Unification in Seoul, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said yesterday that “a considerable number of people” might have died.
The North Korean news agency said the government had organized a major rescue operation. It also reported that senior government and ruling Workers’ Party officials had apologized to bereaved families and district residents.
In a rare admission of a government failure, Choe Pu Il, minister of the people’s security, consoled the families, holding himself and his agency responsible for an “unpardonable crime,” according to the North Korean news media.
The South Korean official said the building was under construction but that as many as 92 families were thought to be living there already. In the North, families often move into an apartment building before it is completed, the official said.
According to the North Korean news agency, the rescue operation ended Saturday. Yesterday, the Rodong Sinmun, the main party newspaper, and other North Korean news media carried photographs showing senior officials bowing in apology — another rare gesture of public contrition for the North’s ruling elite — before what appeared to be a crowd of district residents gathered at a construction site.
Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, “sat up all night, feeling painful after being told about the accident,” the North Korean report said, quoting Kim Su Gil, a senior party secretary in Pyongyang.