Newsweek 7 Nov 2017
North Korea’s multiple underground nuclear tests have turned part of the country into a toxic wasteland, according to a report by South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper published on Monday.
The report is predicated upon the witness testimony of 21 defectors given to the Research Association of Vision of North Korea. The defectors hail from the country’s mountainous North Hamgyoung province, where the underground nuclear site is located and has been active since 2006.
Defectors claim that 80 percent of trees planted near the test site die, that underground wells have been evaporated and that babies in the region are born with birth defects at alarming rates.