Beijing — A road accident in North Korea has caused "heavy casualties" among Chinese tourists, the foreign ministry in Beijing said on Monday. The ministry provided few details but China’s state broadcaster CGTN earlier tweeted that more than 30 people died when a tour bus fell from a bridge in North Korea. The tweet was later deleted. China was informed that the accident occurred on Sunday night, and its embassy personnel in Pyongyang rushed to the scene and were working to manage the situation, the foreign ministry statement said. Most foreign tourists to North Korea are Chinese, with the Cold War-era allies sharing a long land border and operating flights between the two countries. Western visitors to the North once averaged about 5,000 a year, but numbers have been hit recently by a US travel ban — Americans accounted for about 20% of the market — and official warnings from other countries. Tens of thousands of Chinese tourists are believed to visit the North every year, with ma...
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