North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri test site in Kilju, North Hamgyong Province. / Captured from the U.S. Geological Survey



By Choi Ha-young

The government plans to conduct radiation checks on North Korean defectors who lived near a nuclear test site in Kilju County.

The Ministry of Unification said 30 defectors from the area will receive checks for radiation exposure this year, according to Rep. Park Byeong-seug of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, Wednesday.

They are among 114 defectors who left the North since its first nuclear test in 2006.

The 30 will undergo screening for cancer and thyroid function. The Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences will carry out the tests and the ministry will come up with follow-up measures according to the results.

The tests are to deal with growing rumors of radioactive contamination following consecutive nuclear tests.

So far, the North has conducted six nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri test site in Kilju, North Hamgyong Province. Citing a defectors' group, some media outlets have reported residents there suffer from headaches, weight loss and birth-defects in newborns, presumed to be caused by radioactive contamination.

"From 2013, patients with severe fatigue and weight loss sporadically started appearing. Since they could not afford to visit the doctor, those affected usually went to a shaman," a defector who left the county in July 2015 told the Chosun Ilbo, Aug. 1.

Another interviewee who left the North January last year complained of a degraded nervous system. "Around the third nuclear test in 2014, my sense of smell and taste were affected."

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was absent from the nuclear tests. The young leader has observed missile and rocket engine tests multiple times but has never appeared at the nuclear test site.

"The unification ministry should have conducted medical tests earlier for those who used to live near the nuclear test site," Rep. Park said in a press release. "The ministry is obliged to take care of the health of North Korean defectors through such examinations."