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HEALTH / SCIENCE / INTERNET TRULY TIMES 7 JAMMU, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 04, 2020 North Korean defectors say nuclear tests have ravaged their health YOUNG WORLD SEOUL, South Korea — firm. The president of SAND, Choi Defectors who lived near North Both Lee and Rhee Yeong Sil, Kyung Hui, who is also a defector Lessons from Korea’s nuclear testing site say another defector at the SAND but not from Kilju, suggested mil- they believe they are suffering office, say for years they had no itary activity at Punggye-ri in the from exposure to radiation and idea North Korea was testing years leading up to the tests could the casual fear for the health of family mem- nuclear devices. They ignored the explain contamination in the area. Doing an activity differently breaks monotony and bers still living there. tremors and only discovered the But Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a sci- injects energy into mindless routines Standing about 5 feet tall, Lee truth after fleeing their homeland. entist-in-residence at the James Jeong Hwa walks with a slight Rhee, who is in her 60s and Martin Center for Those of you who are on social media may have limp. Middle-aged with an ashen defected in 2013, says that she Nonproliferation Studies in noticed those inky line drawings popping up at regular gray complexion and deep-set lived just a few miles from the Monterey, California, has doubts intervals over the past two weeks — from the begin- dark brown eyes, Lee says she's in Punggye-ri test site, and that her that radiation damaged the envi- ning of October, to be precise. The “inktober” initiative constant pain. neighbor gave birth to a deformed ronment and residents' health. aims at getting people to pick up a pen and doodle in a But back home, things are much baby. He said that if any radioactive mindful way, prompted by a single word. Poison, swift, worse, she says. "We couldn’t determine the gen- material had leaked, even from a crooked, and screech were some of the words on the "So many people died we began der of the baby, because it didn’t reported tunnel collapse this there’s a long-term risk of cancer. nuclear engineering at Seoul list, this year, and the sketches I have seen so far have calling it 'ghost disease,'" she said. Lee and other defectors are National University (SNU), says have any genitals," Rhee says. "In month following the sixth test, "We thought we were dying adamant these tests have had a the reality is that researchers are North Korea, deformed babies are powerful sensors in the region that ranged from simple to complex. because we were poor and we ate detrimental effect on their health. suffering from a "total lack of usually killed. So the parents "sniff" the atmosphere would have There is another Internet-fuelled motivational move- badly. Now we know it was the The scientific evidence and expert data." killed the baby." detected it. The same goes for pre- ment called “Nanowrimo” or “National Novel Writing radiation." opinion, however, is not so con- "I don’t think they’re lying," Some of Rhee and Lee’s claims of vious tests, he said. Month” which began in the United States, and has As Lee rubs her sore right leg in clusive. Kune-yull says of the defectors. radiation exposure date to the Days after the sixth test, the South spread across many countries. Here, you begin and fin- the office of SAND, a nongovern- South Korea’s Ministry of "We have to take their word, but I 1990s and even the 1980s, raising Korean government announced it ish a writing project within November. You set the mental organization in Seoul that questions about whether some- had detected trace amounts of Unification has been testing Lee don’t have much reliable informa- parameters — short or long — but the idea is to write advocates human rights in North and 29 other defectors from Kilju tion." thing other than a nuclear test radioactive xenon, though it never Korea, she recounted how she was for radiation contamination. Lee A woman walks before houses in a could have contaminated the envi- said conclusively where it came regularly and meet the target. caught trying to flee the country in told NBC News that her test village near Kimchaek on North ronment and made people sick. from. Creativity is the key 2003. results have already come back — Korea's northeast coast. It is locat- While the country's first nuclear Ferenc says it’s "very, very The two initiatives are quite different, yet they share She eventually escaped in 2010 and they’re clean. ed about 22 miles south of Kilju. test wasn’t until 2006, the defec- unlikely" that it came from the something. The first aims at getting everyone to draw, from her home in Kilju County, And aside from the testimony of Ed Jones / AFP - Getty Images tors tell stories of trout dying in Punggye-ri site. He’s also skepti- to have fun with lines and ideas. The second pushes home of North Korea’s nuclear te Lee and others, it's hard to verify A spokesman for the Korea the mountain streams and the cal of groundwater contamination. those who want to write to do something about it. But, According to the World Health area's prized pine mushrooms dis- Testing near water-saturated rock, radiation as the cause of the wide- Institute of Nuclear Safety told they both offer a clear project, and a definite timeline. Organization, radiation can impair spread illnesses, such as leukemia NBC News it’s "assumed" that appearing long before then. he says, could build up steam that the functioning of tissues and and other cancers, that defectors exposure to radioactive material A satellite image showing Kilju, vents contaminants into the air. You set a short-term goal and work towards it. organs, depending on the level of say have been ravaging Kilju. from the underground test site is North Korea. DigitalGlobe / Getty That, he says, is in no one’s inter- In the first instance, the appeal is in playing with words exposure. At lower doses, it says, Suh Kune-yull, a professor of excessive, but it’s difficult to con- Images file est. and ideas and expressing them visually — without hav- ing to be a serious artist. In engaging with this playful activity, you might surprise yourself, discovering an Hurricane Maria drug shortage interest, ability, or way of thinking that you had never Coffee can reduce diabetes risk really considered before. Our education system, by and Bengaluru: The medicine that one substance that has so far threatens tiny patients in U.S. large, schools us out of this way of engaging our minds, can delay your diabetes is been untested. and we end up falling into predictable, narrow ways of right on your coffee table. In their study, the researchers doing things. A commitment to doing something differ- ‘Cafestol’, a bioactive sub- wanted to see if ‘cafestol’ ent, in a lighthearted, un-serious way, can help us break stance found in coffee, could would help prevent or delay that and inject some energy into a mindless routine. help delay the onset of Type-2 the onset of Type-2 diabetes in This may sound somewhat contradictory — commit- diabetes, improve cell func- mice. The findings have been ment and lighthearted are not words that usually go tion and insulin sensitivity in reported in the American together. But that is exactly the appeal, and the joy, of laboratory mice, according to Chemical Society Journal of something like inktober. It is also a bit different from a a study carried out by a team Natural Products. According regular hobby or pastime, which, however enjoyable, of scientists in Denmark. to the authors, “the finding can also become habitual and routine. This is yet another research could spur the development of In the second instance, you use the month — or any finding that has driven coffee new drugs to treat or even pre- specified period of time — to challenge yourself to do from its universal role as a vent the disease”. For their insulin as well as liver, muscle high-cafestol group. Cafestol something you have always wanted to do, but had been breakfast beverage into the list study, the scientists chose a and fat tissues for gene expres- increased insulin secretion of items that can be recom- model of mice called KKAy sion analysis were collected. from isolated islets by 75-87 Drug shortages worsened by Hurricane Maria’s devastation on putting off for whatever reason. mended for a healthy diet and mice that are prone to develop The researchers isolated islets per cent compared to the con- Puerto Rico is now threatening some of the most tiny and vulner- By setting aside time for that particular activity, you are lifestyle. diabetes. Forty-seven male of Langerhans which produce trol group.” able patients in the U.S. — premature babies. committing to it and making space for it in your life. For instance, recently mice were randomly divided insulin and measured their The researchers conclude their Power outages caused by the hurricane are still hitting production Having others doing this along with you, as happens researchers at the University into two groups - treatment insulin secretory capacity. results show that cafestol pos- of saline solution, one of the most widely used medical supplies. during Nanowrimo, can also be hugely motivational. of Southern California in the and control groups. While all “After 10 weeks of interven- sesses anti-diabetic properties But they’re also causing bottlenecks in the supply of amino acids Plus, the idea that it has to be done within that short US in a study of more than the mice consumed normal tion, fasting plasma glucose in mice.

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