The Harsh Reality for North Korean Nuclear Scientists: A Life Without Self-Determination

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un carries an official believed to be in charge of defense science and technology on his back after observing the ground explosion test of a new high-output rocket engine at the Sohae Satellite Launch Center in March 2017. /Chosun Central TV Yonhap News

“North Korean nuclear scientists are beings without the right to self-determination, with their life paths set in almost every field, including the fields of research, housing, eating, and marriage, from elementary school age. “In North Korean society, where failure means disloyalty, we are in an inhuman situation where we have no choice but to die while working for the ‘task of the motherland.’

North Korea, which is devoted to developing nuclear weapons and missiles, is known to treat nuclear scientists with preferential treatment, as far as Kim Jong-un stands, but an analysis by a Korean Peninsula expert in Washington, DC, suggests that the reality is quite different. There are an estimated 10,000 nuclear-related experts in North Korea.

robert collins

Robert Collins, who served in the US Army in Korea for 31 years and served as chief strategist of the ROK-US Joint Forces Command, describes the human rights violations they committed in the report “Slave to the Bomb: The Role and Fate of North Korean Nuclear Scientists,” published on the 10th illuminated in detail. This conclusion was made based on the testimony of North Korean defectors he interviewed and various undisclosed materials. “Outsiders thought that nuclear weapons were so important to the survival of Kim Jong-un and North Korea that scientists would be treated well, but that was not the case,” said Collins “With the supreme leader calls for the development of sophisticated weapons Able to hit the mainland of the United States, nuclear scientists “We are facing a dangerous future with no other way out than success,” he said.

According to the 200-page report previously obtained by this newspaper, the fate of a so-called ‘bomb slave’ is decided as early as the age of ten. North Korea has a system that allows each administrative unit, whether rural or urban, to ‘centrally’ select talented individuals in mathematics and science. In the report, Collins said, “We gather the best students from each region and provide them with a gifted education in subjects such as maths, science and physics. If they stand out, there are cases where entire families are forced to progress to higher schools.” The ‘No. 1 Middle School’ in Sinwon-dong, Pyongyang, which Kim Jong-il attended, is a cradle of gifted education and attracts the brightest students from all over North Korea. The level is high enough that students regularly participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Graphics = Sang-hoon Park

Scientists confirmed that they work in the nuclear program entering mainly five universities, including Kim Il-sung University and Kim Chaek University of Technology in Pyongyang and Ganggye University of Technology in Jagang Province. The report said, “If you achieve excellent academic results even once in a specific research field, your fate as an expert is already decided it can be your place of work and other factors related to it. ” “It’s about the quality of housing,” he said. Accordingly, the person to marry is almost determined and there is no ‘freedom of choice,’ but “those who are unwilling are punished and deprived of various benefits.” Despite various sanctions against North Korea, there are opportunities to study abroad, and representative exchange institutions include Russia’s Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) and China’s Harbin Institute of Technology. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the number of North Korean students studying at the Harbin Institute of Technology was more than 1,000 a year.

The quality of life as a nuclear scientist depends on where you work. North Korea is known to have more than 100 nuclear facilities, and Collins said, “About 40 of these are key facilities that must be addressed in the denuclearization process in the future.” These include 15 nuclear research and supervision facilities, 8 uranium mines, and 5 nuclear power stations and refineries. Workplaces are sometimes determined on the basis of what is known as ‘songbun’ background. It is said that the area to avoid, which is considered the roughest, is the northernmost area, namely Punggye-ri, Gilju-gun, Hamgyeongbuk-do. This is where six nuclear tests took place between 2006 and 2017.

Although North Korea’s nuclear energy law states that ‘the state guarantees the safety of workers’, this was found to be mere rhetoric and that even basic safety facilities were not in place. Kim Dae-ho, who left North Korea in 1994 after working in North Korea’s Ministry of Atomic Energy Industry, said, “Workers in the nuclear development field are forced into uranium tanks and forced to do murderous labor by breathing space where countless uranium powder and dust float around.” The report also presented a case where “about 100 physics college graduates in Bungang district were mentally disaffected after exposure to radiation while working at the nearby Yongbyon nuclear facility, and their families suffered from infertility and birth defects and died one after another.” In fact, North Korean defectors who worked in related fields often complain of various ‘occupational diseases’ such as leukopenia, hepatitis, orchitis, and nephritis due to damage from highly toxic gases and radiation. A collapse reportedly occurred in 2017 during construction to create an underground tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, burying hundreds of people.

North Korean scientists clap in front of Kim Jong-un – North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un (front row, left) and his daughter Kim Joo-ae (front row, right) receive applause from scientists who contributed to the development of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) after the successful launch in November 2022. it. /Rodong Newspaper News 1

The financial situation of many nuclear scientists is also difficult. It is said that when Kim Jong-il was in power, the residential complex in front of the National Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang, where they lived, was called the ‘fermentation flat.’ This is because nuclear scientists, who were not wealthy enough to take on side jobs to make a living, extracted alcohol from corn, acorns, etc. for self-consumption or sale.

Due to the nature of the North Korean regime, the party’s surveillance and control over nuclear scientists is known to be significant. The report said, “There is a party committee in every research institute as well as every nuclear facility, which is a structure that constantly monitors scientists and tests their loyalty.” Even if each person is working hard on research, bartering for collaboration is strictly prohibited. One developer is said to have had his entire family arrested after sharing what he was researching with people around him. The report said, “Since the North Korean regime is not using nuclear energy in a way that could benefit more people, nuclear scientists have nothing to do but make weapons and train the personnel of the nuclear program.”

However, Collins said that it was true that after Kim Jong-un came to power, an atmosphere of tolerance of failure was created in the process of developing weapons such as nuclear weapons and missiles. North Korea released a photo of Kim Jong-un personally carrying a scientist after the successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in 2017. The report said, “From 1984 to 2017, North Korean leaders made a total of 119 ‘visits site’, of which Kim Jong-un had 83.”

Collins plans to present the contents of this report at an event hosted by the Human Rights Committee in North Korea (HRNK), a human rights group for North Korea, in Washington, DC on the 10th, attended by Julie Turner, State Department US. special envoy for human rights of North Korea, and others. HRNK Director David Maxwell, a US Korean veteran, said, “The idea that we have to refrain from raising human rights issues in order to have a dialogue with North Korea must be dispelled.” “We need to deal with it head on and make the Kim family take responsibility,” he said.

☞ Robert Collins

An expert on the Korean Peninsula who worked as a US soldier and civil servant for 37 years. During his career, he served in the US Army in Korea for 31 years, and as chief strategist of the ROK-US Joint Forces Command, he assisted the General of the Joint Forces Command, a four-star general, and was at the steering wheel political analysis and planning. During the Lee Myung-bak administration, he received the National Defense Merit Medal. He majored in Asian history at the University of Maryland and received a master’s degree in North Korean politics from Dankook University. He currently works on North Korean human rights issues as a senior advisor at the Human Rights Committee in North Korea (HRNK), a North Korean human rights organization in Washington, DC.

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