North Korea’s Nuclear Tests Result in Deformed Babies, Defectors Claim

Years of nuclear testing are starting to take its toll on the affected Kilju county in North Korea, according to a defectors who said the region’s underground wells have dried up after the sixth nuclear test and that 80% of the planted trees eventually died off.

According to The Independent, the group of 21 defectors came from Kilju, the area where North Korea’s only known nuclear testing grounds called Punggye-ri is located.

One of the defectors interviewed by the Research Association of Vision of North Korea claimed to have experienced two nuclear tests between 2006 and 2009, which were done without civilian consent.

The defector claimed that these nuclear tests were done without warning and that “ordinary people were completely unaware.”

“Only family members of soldiers were evacuated to underground shafts,” the defector added.

A former local resident was informed by a relative in Kilju that the babies born in the hospitals came out deformed, while another defector “personally saw corpses floating down the river with their limbs severed,” according to Fox News.

To make matters worse, sources say that Kilju residents were not allowed to make hospital appointments in Pyonyang after the last nuclear test was done.

Individuals boarding trains with samples of water, leaves and soil taken from Kilju will also be arrested by North Korean authorities and sent to prison camps afterwards.

North Korean officials reportedly did not verify any of the claims made by the defectors. However, the former North Korean residents explained that Kim Jong-Un’s regime was adamant in making sure that none of their stories are publicized.

Featured Image via Flickr / Uri Tours (CC BY 2.0)