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Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul inspects data related to the alleged radiation exposure of North Korean defectors from near the Punggye Village nuclear test site during an audit by the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee on Oct. 17.

While the Unification Ministry was being audited by the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee on Oct. 17, Bareunmirae Party lawmaker Choung Byoung-guk and Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul got into a take-no-prisoners debate about whether there was a radiation leak at North Korea’s Punggye Village nuclear testing site and, if so, whether North Korean defectors from the village had been exposed to that radiation. The argument had Chung meting out attacks that Kim rebutted before launching a counterattack.

Choung’s assault on Kim, backed up by the testimony of exports and North Korean defectors, can be summarized in four points.

First, Choung said that “the government is proposing that the issue of Japan’s handling of contaminated water from Fukushima be brought up in international fora while not even mentioning the issue of exposure to radiation from North Korea’s nuclear tests.” This was an ideological attack, based on the argument that the Moon administration is taking a tough stance toward Japan but staying soft on North Korea. Kim didn’t offer a detailed response, apparently hoping to avoid needless controversy.

Second, Choung said that “chromosomal abnormalities were found in five out of 10 North Korean defectors who were tested for radiation exposure by the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS) at the request of the Unification Ministry.” Kim responded by saying that “of the five people with irregular levels, the institute concluded that one case was connected with a CT scan or radiation therapy and that the other four could not be linked to radiation exposure.” One of the figures with unusually high levels had reportedly received radiation as part of a cancer treatment regimen.

Commenting on the “irregular levels,” KIRAMS, which was in charge of the examination, explained, “While past exposure to radioactivity or radioactive contamination may be one cause, we cannot rule out the possibility that the readings were somewhat high as a result of confounding variables such as the examinees’ age, their history of medical exposure, and their history of smoking and exposure to harmful chemicals (e.g., pesticides).” This would suggest the irregular levels cannot be directly linked to radiation exposure as a result of nuclear testing.

Third, Choung criticized the government for “not being public with the data [containing the examination results showing radiation exposure] and insisting that people not leak it or talk about it.”

Kim said the data “was never made confidential.”

“Results from a 2017 study were released immediately, and the results of a 2018 study were reported to the National Assembly,” he said.

On Oct. 17, the Ministry of Unification explained, “Radiation exposure examinations were conducted twice [in October to December 2017 and September to December 2018] through KIRAMS on defectors from Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province [site of the Punggye Village test site] and surrounding areas who expressed an interest.” Responding to Choung’s remarks that five of the people with irregular levels had defected in the wake of North Korea’s first two nuclear tests” – and his claim that “we don’t need to see the situation after the sixth to know that it’s bad” – the ministry said, “The examinations conducted between September and December 2018 included two defectors who had resided in Kilju or its vicinity at the time of the fifth and sixth nuclear tests.”

Fourth, Choung called Suh Kune-yull, a professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University, as a witness to describe the large-scale radiation exposure following nuclear tests in Kazakhstan and the US, voicing concerns about the possibility of large-scale exposure to the region and residents around the Punggye site. He also mentioned the risk of underground water contamination as a result of weathering.

Kim noted, “In terms of whether radioactivity is leaked into the air, there is a difference between atmospheric testing and underground testing.”

“Those cases [of testing in the atmosphere] can’t really be applied to the nuclear tests at Punggye Village,” he argued.

Indeed, the results of expert studies by the international community found that all of the cases of civilian exposure found for the test sites cited by Choung – at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan and in the US state of Nevada – occurred as a result of open-air testing or underground testing in non-sealed conditions. In contrast, all six of North Korea’s nuclear tests were conducted in sealed underground tunnels. More significantly, none of the five South Korean and US journalists who covered the scene of the Punggye site’s demolition in May 2018 has yet complained of symptoms related to radiation exposure.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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