It appears that 3,000 people have been killed or injured in North Korea in an explosion caused by a train full of gas crashing into a train full of petroleum. I doubt that we’ll see much more information coming out of that secretive nation.

I therefore can’t help feeling that BBC News Online has made a bit of an ass of itself in this report, at the bottom of which they solicit comments with the following text:

Are you in North Korea or near the Chinese border? Have you heard about the accident? Are you worried for family or friends? Send us your comments using the form below.

How many North Korean internet users are there? By all accounts, only one: Mr Kim himself. What are the chances of him dropping BBC News a line? And even if there were other internet users, I’m willing to bet that a foreign new site like the BBC would be censored.

Update—they have removed the comments form from the page. I guess that they didn’t get many responses, then.