Government Conducts 'Half-Measure' Radiation Tests on Defectors... "Repeating Inadequate Investigations from Moon Era"

Ministry of Unification to Conduct Full Radiation Screening for Defectors from May
Control Group and Epidemiological Investigation, Cited as 'Cause of Negligence,' Omitted Again
"Repeating Moon Era Investigation Amid Concealment Allegations"

As concerns arise that radioactive materials from North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site could spread to hundreds of thousands of residents, the government will conduct a full-scale radiation exposure survey targeting North Korean defectors starting next month. However, plans such as setting up a control group or holding public discussions, which were proposed as measures to resolve concealment and negligence suspicions that surfaced during the previous administration, are missing, raising concerns that inadequate investigations may be repeated.

An official from the Ministry of Unification told reporters on the 13th, "Following the announcement of a full-scale radiation exposure survey plan targeting defectors from areas near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in February this year, we have consulted with the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences and plan to conduct the survey starting in May." He emphasized, "The previous survey was too small in scale to generalize, and we decided to conduct a comprehensive re-survey to completely address the raised concerns."

North Korea's nuclear test site located in Punggye-ri, Kilju County, Hamgyongbuk-do [Image source=Yonhap News]

The first survey, which will run until November, targets 89 individuals: 80 volunteers among 796 defectors from Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province, and nearby areas who fled after the first nuclear test in 2006, and 9 individuals who showed abnormal values among 40 previously tested defectors. During the Moon Jae-in administration, the Ministry of Unification conducted radiation exposure tests twice between 2017 and 2018 on 40 defectors from Punggye-ri.

In the earlier survey, some individuals showed radiation exposure levels more than twice those of workers involved in the Fukushima nuclear accident cleanup in Japan, but the government at the time dismissed concerns with an unclear conclusion that "confounding variables cannot be excluded." Notably, during the 2019 National Assembly audit, it was revealed that the government had prohibited the medical institute responsible for the tests from using the results for research or submitting them to the National Assembly, fueling suspicions of concealment.

Subsequently, the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a human rights investigation organization, tracked and investigated concerns over the spread of radioactive materials from the nuclear test site to residents through groundwater for four years, releasing a report in February. As concerns grew over indirect exposure through water and the smuggling and distribution of agricultural and marine products potentially affecting South Korea, the Ministry of Unification announced a full-scale survey policy three days after the report's release.

At that time, the Ministry of Unification admitted that the previous government's tests, which faced criticism for inadequacy, "lacked a control group, had a small sample size, and suffered from insufficient information on confounding variables, making it difficult to generalize the results."

However, the newly prepared full-scale survey plan also lacks measures to resolve suspicions, such as ▲setting up a control group and ▲public discussions on survey and utilization plans. In particular, there is no epidemiological investigation or in-depth interview process to verify the "indirect exposure through water" pointed out in the report that triggered the full-scale survey. Apart from increasing the number of survey subjects, the overall process remains the same as before.

Professor Seo Gyun-ryeol of Seoul National University's Department of Nuclear Engineering, former vice president of the Korean Nuclear Society, cited a 2018 test where a woman showed a value as high as 1386 mGy, emphasizing that "this is an extremely high level that cannot be explained by normal confounding variables." The unit mGy (milligray) refers to the 'absorbed dose' of radioactive material in the body, and under normal living conditions, the distribution is usually up to about 5 mGy.

Professor Seo particularly noted, "The woman experienced only the relatively weaker first to third nuclear tests but showed worrying exposure levels," diagnosing that "the only plausible route for this value is the use of water contaminated with radioactive materials mixed through typhoons, monsoons, and underground water veins as drinking water." He stressed the importance of verifying indirect spread through water in radiation exposure tests for defectors.

Lee Young-hwan, representative of the Transitional Justice Working Group, criticized, "The most basic control group setup has been completely omitted, and the inadequate investigations from the Moon Jae-in administration are being repeated as is." He pointed out, "The Ministry of Unification responded to related inquiries by saying 'it is impossible to investigate water sources because we cannot go to North Korea,' but this means discussions should be held with experts and public hearings to find valid epidemiological investigation methods, such as whether groundwater was used as drinking water."

An official from the Ministry of Unification said, "We cannot comment at this time on plans for utilizing the test results or setting up a control group." However, he explained, "We plan to conduct the survey alongside general health checkups to confirm the radiation effects and health status of defectors," adding, "If problems arise from the results, we will reconsider whether to support treatment costs based on the findings."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.