Bridge at NKorean resort collapses, 20 hurt
Seoul,
Oct
15:
A
suspension
bridge
for
pedestrians
collapsed
at
a
mountain
resort
in
North
Korea
today,
injuring
about
20
South
Korean
tourists,
a
tour
operator
official
said.
The bridge was at the Mount Kumgang resort, which is run by an affiliate of South Korea's Hyundai Group.
The resort is billed as place where people from the divided Koreas can meet and has drawn more than 1.5 million visitors from the South since it opened in 1998.
''Some of the injured are unable to walk and are being urgently transported to the South, where we have a hospital on standby,'' a Hyundai Asan official said by telephone without offering details on the extent of the injuries.
A faulty suspension cable appeared to have been the cause of the accident, the official said.
There are two places where South Koreans regularly cross one of the world's most militarised borders and enter communist North Korea. One is the mountain resort on the east coast and the other is a South-run industrial park about 60 km (40 miles) northwest of Seoul.
The two Koreas are technically still at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce and not with a peace treaty.
Reuters
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