Group urges radiation tests for 900 North Korean escapees

A guard stands at the entrance of the north tunnel at North Korea’s nuclear test site shortly before it was to be blown up in a media tour of dismantling the test site, at Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province in 2018 (APTN/AP)

Human rights advocates have urged South Korea to offer radiation exposure tests to hundreds of North Korean escapees who had lived near the country’s nuclear testing ground.

Tests conducted by the South Korean government on 40 people in 2017 and 2018 found at least nine of them had abnormalities that could indicate high radiation exposure, but Seoul’s Unification Ministry said a conclusive link to North Korea’s nuclear activity could not be established and other factors were possible, such as age, smoking habits or other types of chemical exposure.