SEOUL: Thousands of North Koreans and people in South Korea, Japan and China have been exposed to radioactive material leaking through groundwater from an underground nuclear test site, a Seoul-based human rights group said in a report on Tuesday. can
According to the US and South Korean governments, North Korea secretly conducted six nuclear weapons tests between 2006 and 2017 at the Punggye-ri site in mountainous North Hamgyong Province.
The study by the Transitional Justice Working Group said radioactive material could spread to eight cities and counties near the site, where more than one million North Koreans live, and where groundwater is used for daily life, including drinking.
It also said neighboring countries South Korea, China and Japan could be at risk, in part because of agricultural and fishery products smuggled from the North.
The group, formed in 2014, worked with nuclear and medical experts and activists and used open-source intelligence and publicly available government and UN reports for its study, which was supported by the National Endowment for Democracy. , which is a non-profit corporation of the US Congress.
The group’s Hubert Young-Hwan Lee said, “This report is important in showing that North Korea’s nuclear tests threaten the right to life and health not only of the North Korean people, but of South Korea and other neighboring countries as well. may occur.” Chief and a co-author.
North Korea’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York did not return telephone calls made by JEE News.
In 2015, South Korea’s Food Safety Agency detected nine times the standard level of radioactive cesium isotopes in imported hedgehog mushrooms that were sold as Chinese produce even though their original origin was North Korea.
China and Japan have stepped up radiation monitoring and raised concerns about possible exposure after the North’s previous nuclear tests, but have not made public information about contaminated food.
Many outside experts have raised concerns about health risks from contaminated water, but North Korea has dismissed such concerns, saying it has not leaked harmful material after past nuclear tests, without providing evidence. gone.
When North Korea invited foreign journalists to witness the destruction of some tunnels at a nuclear test site in 2018, it confiscated their radiation detectors.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, stopped testing defectors for radiation exposure in 2018 amid a breakdown in cross-border relations.
But, of the 40 defectors from areas near Punggye-ri that were tested for radiation in 2017 and 2018, at least nine showed abnormalities. However, the ministry said it could not make direct contact with the nuclear site.
More than 880 North Koreans have escaped from these areas since 2006, the report said.
The rights group called for a resumption of tests and an international inquiry into the dangers of radiation to communities around Pingi-re.
The Unification Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Seoul and Washington have said that Pyongyang may be preparing for a seventh nuclear test.
