The family members of the two Taiwanese tourists, who were killed in Monday's bus crash in northeastern Jilin Province arrived at the Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Yanbian by plane on Tuesday night.

The prefecture government has set up a special work team to receive the family members of the Taiwanese tourists and to help them deal with the aftermath of the accident, said Wei Jiuping, director of the prefecture's Taiwan Affairs Office.

The bodies of the two female tourists, namely 66-year-old Lee Lin Ching-miao and Leu Hsiu-ching, 62, were well preserved at the funeral home of Wangqing County, where the accident happened, according to Wei.

In addition, the seriously-wounded couple, 69-year-old Yen Wenhsiong and his wife Yang Suiying, 60, were in a stable condition, but they were still under intensive care, he said.

A slippery road and reckless driving are to blame for the bus crash in northeastern Jilin Province which killed three people and injured 18 others.

The traffic accident occurred at 9:40 a.m. on a highway in Wangqing County when a 20-member Taiwanese tourist group was traveling from the neighboring province of Heilongjiang to Jilin.

The bus first crashed into the rail on the highway and then fell 26 meters into a river. The two Taiwanese women and the bus driver from Heilongjiang were killed.

The county government had informed the families of all the tourists soon after the accident.

All the 18 injured Taiwanese tourists were transferred to the Yanbian Hospital Tuesday to receive better treatment.

A special medical task force has been working to save the injured people, Wei said.

Sun Yafu, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council visited the 18 injured tourists on Tuesday afternoon and he urged local authorities to spare no efforts to save the injured so that they could return to Taiwan safe and sound.

The tourist group was on the second leg of a ten-day tour through the three northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2006)