A fire aboard a freight train headed to Nampo from Pyongyang incinerated the cargo it was carrying, Daily NK has learned. The train in question carried military and civilian cargo, and the man who caused the blaze was beaten by his fellow soldiers, resulting in a commotion after police got involved.
“The soldiers at the No. 10 checkpoint at the Sunhwa River on the way to Nampo from Pyongyang had long made money by colluding with civilian merchants in Pyongyang to allow freight trains loaded with products for sale to pass without problems, but early this month, there was an issue when a fire erupted,” a Daily NK source in Pyongyang said recently.
According to the source, the soldiers at the Sunhwa River No. 10 checkpoint made money by colluding with Pyongyang businesspeople to allow them to transport their goods to Nampo and other regions by using their control, inspection, and transit authority.
The soldiers at this particular checkpoint had made diligent use of this method to earn money not only to live on, but also to pay the bribes they needed to get their party cards or land good jobs after their discharge.
Accordingly, the freight trains could go on their way restriction-free even earlier this month, when authorities declared a period of heightened patrols. However, early this month, a fire erupted on a train as it passed through Nampo’s Ryonggang county, incinerating the flatscreen TVs and car and motorcycle parts it carried.
Cigarette sparks blaze, soldiers exact revenge
“The train that departed from Pyongyang was carrying not only electronics and vehicle parts, but also a few people,” the source said. “Some people pay the train engineers to ride the freight trains because it’s cheaper than the bus, and one man who was riding the train this time put out the cigarette he was smoking on a box carrying vehicle parts, starting the blaze.”
“When the fire instantly started after the wind carried sparks from the cigarette butt, the people on the train scrambled to escape,” the source said. “The fire grew as nobody could contain it, and all the flatscreen TVs onboard melted, and the vehicle parts were a total loss, with only some of their metal components remaining.”
The merchants in Pyongyang suffered a huge loss, and the blaze hurt the soldiers’ money-making operations. Accordingly, the soldiers found the man who ignited the fire with his cigarette and mercilessly beat him.
The merchants in Pyongyang also visited the man’s home and demanded he pay damages, but they received nothing as he was penniless.
Meanwhile, the family of the man beaten to a bloody pulp irately reported the beating to police, making the incident an even bigger deal than it was.
“The problem almost grew into something more, but the police—after learning what happened—hesitated to get involved as soldiers were involved, and they covered up the incident because the man clearly caused the fire with his carelessness, with the matter quietly dying as a result.”
February 02, 2026 at 04:42AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)