South Korea plans to conduct a radiation test on 89 North Korean defectors who hailed from areas near the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site, amid concerns about their possible exposure to radioactive leaks, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said on Thursday.
The radiation testing will be carried out starting in May for six months on North Korean defectors who had lived in Kilju county and its nearby areas, and escaped the North after its first nuclear test in 2006, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Ministry as saying.
“It would be meaningful to pre-emptively check the possibility of exposure to radioactive leaks and overall health conditions for those who may have sustained damage from the North’s nuclear tests,” a Ministry official told reporters.
Among the 89 defectors to undergo the testing, nine defectors will be the ones who received the result of having suspected radiation exposure during the government’s similar radiation testing held in 2017.
At that time, the Ministry said some defectors showed signs of suspected radiation exposure in the medical check-up, but it is hard to confirm the nuclear tests affected them.
The North’s Punggye-ri nuclear site is located at Kilju county in the country’s northeastern province.
The secretive regime has conducted all of its six nuclear tests at the site.