Measures against radioactive contamination needed at the nuclear test site in Punggye-ri

There are growing concerns over radioactive contamination and exposure to radiation by local villagers close to the nuclear test site at Punggye-ri located on the northern tip of the Korean peninsula. SAND has long addressed this issue, and the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) has conducted related researches and investigations for years. Our combined efforts have finally yielded results: the South Korean government announced that it will make a full investigation over North Korean defectors from the area.

For more than a decade, people residing in the Gilju area in North Hamgyong province, where the Punggye-ri nuclear test site is located, are reported to suffer from lingering illness. They would break out in sweats and get headaches, but all that the villagers were able to hear from medical doctors at local hospitals was that no diagnosis could be made about the illness. The villagers were overcome with fear.

After they have resettled in South Korea, North Korean defectors from this region were belatedly told that their illness might be related to radiation from the nuclear test site. There were six nuclear tests altogether at the site since the first one in October 2006, so the possibility of exposure to radiation and contamination of groundwater is hardly insignificant.

In an investigation of 40 refugees who had lived in the Gilju area between 2017 and 2018, the South Korean government found abnormalities in nine people, but the findings were swept under the rug for unexplained reasons. Suspicions were raised that the Moon Jae-in administration covered up the case in the consideration of its relations with North Korea.

TJWG, an organization that tracks and monitors human rights conditions in North Korea, however, said in a report last month that "540,000 people in the Punggye-ri area may have suffered direct or indirect radiation damages, and local agricultural products are also at risk of contamination." The group called for an examination for radiation be made on all 881 North Korean refugees who had lived in eight counties surrounding Punggye-ri before they left North Korea, and the results to be made public.

The Punggye-ri test site, located at 2205 meters above sea level on Mantap Mountain, is built in a solid granite area. However, repeated nuclear tests accompanied by earthquakes that shake the ground are likely to have caused a tired mountain syndrome, according to Seo Kyun-ryeol, professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University.

Namdaecheon, a stream that originates from Mantap Mountain, runs across the village of Gilju and flows into the East Sea passing the area between the city of Kimchaek and the county of Hwadae. The problem lies in that radiation emitted from the nuclear tests can be leaked into and spread through across the area by groundwater.

Experts and international organizations express similar concerns. On March 1, a U.S. organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists, said, "Access to the geological and architectural details of the underground test sites is critical to understanding the possible pathways of radiation leakage through air and groundwater that could endanger lives of the local residents." The American scientists emphasized the role of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) and similar agencies on this matter.

The South Korean society is, however, lukewarm in their response to the issue. The risk arises from nuclear tests and radioactive contamination in the Korean peninsula, but South Koreans view it as if it were a problem for other countries. Their response to North Korean radiation is different from the sensitive response they showed to the release of radioactive contaminated water by Japan after an accident in Fukushima nuclear plants. The radiation leakage from North Korea is bound to be much more serious than that from Japan and the damage to be caused by contaminated water is inevitably greater, but South Koreans have applied different standards and responded complacently to the former.

Radioactive contamination at North Korean test sites directly affects South Koreans’ lives as well. Mushrooms and other agricultural products from North Korea imported to the South under the guise of Chinese products are likely to pass lax customs procedures and end up on South Koreans’ plates. 

In fact, in 2015, the South Korean government revealed that more than nine times the allowed amount of radioactive cesium isotopes were detected in the mushrooms imported from North Korea under the guise of Chinese products. There are concerns that the smuggling and distributing mushrooms and other agricultural products and specialties from the contaminated regions could put not only North Koreans at risk, but also the people in the neighboring China, South Korea, and Japan.

It is necessary to take measures, including thorough medical examination and treatment, for North Korean defectors from this region and convey to the North Korean authorities the danger of nuclear tests on the Korean peninsula and concerns of the South Korean and international community on it. The observation of Kim Jong-un fiddling with the button for his county’s seventh nuclear test calls for a more meticulous strategy for response.