Inside North Korea’s Nuclear Secrets: Shadows of the 131st Bureau

The Patients of the 131st Bureau Hospital

I was born in Pyongyang in 1970. I graduated from the military university

with sixteen years of service in the North Korean Army Engineer Corps, even

becoming an officer. I’m Kim Myong Chol, a North Korean defector sent

overseas to Russia by the External Construction Guidance Bureau.

I learned about the 131st Nuclear Guidance Bureau (the 131st Bureau)

through my father and friend. My father, who was a colonel in the army, knew

it existed because the 131st Bureau was a unit that had broken away from the

engineer corps. While I was at the military university, I met a friend who had

served in the 131st Bureau, and it was from this friend that I heard about it in

detail. In particular, when this friend was admitted to the hospital affiliated

with the 131st Bureau for surgery for anal fistula, I saw radiation exposure

patients, and it was because of this experience that I came to write this account.

The main task of the 131st Bureau was the construction of under ground

tunnels and nuclear power plants for nuclear testing, which required significant

labor hours. Moreover, when party orders were handed down, the soldiers were

subjected to intense labor, with two shifts (twelve hours of work followed by

twelve hours of rest) to complete construction by that day.

Specifically, protective clothing was only provided to soldiers collecting minerals

from uranium mines. They were contaminated hand-me-downs from senior

soldiers, and when they ripped, the soldiers had to sew them up themselves.

At the underground tunnel construction site, workers placed low-grade ore

in one-ton carts and dragged them on rails, and manual blasting methods were

used, resulting in frequent fatal accidents due to mistakes. Because there was

a lot of nuclear-related construction, the unit was said to provide high-calorie

meals, but the situation wasn’t good for the soldiers of the 131st Bureau due to

repeated food shortages. 

I heard that at one time, soldiers doing underground 

construction were supplied with 100ml of soju and one egg a day to wash a

way the stone dust accumulated in their bodies. As a result, most of the soldiers

didn’t even think about being exposed to radiationand only wanted to escape

from fatigue and hunger.

And to keep secrets from leaking out even after the soldiers were discharged,

they created another undercover office, staffed it with 131st Bureau veterans, and

kept it under tight surveillance.

As I mentioned earlier, I had the opportunity to visit the 131st Bureau

Hospital to see a friend from university. The hospital was off-limits to outsiders,

so it was difficult to visit, but my friend who was hospitalized was close to

the military doctor on duty. I got in by showing the guard at the front gate a

certificate stating that I was a military university student on an officer track.

Since my visitation day was on a Sunday, the first three floors used for

outpatient care were mostly unoccupied, so I initially thought the hospital was

quiet. But the moment I got to the fourth floor, where the inpatient wards were 

located, I started to hear patients screaming and saw the devastation of hospitalized

soldiers through the open doors of the wards.

The military doctor on duty who guided me around warned me not to

reveal what I’d seen and sent me into the hospital room where my friend was.

The 40-square-meter room contained ten beds, placed symmetrically, and the

patients’ skin was as white as flour, so I assumed they were tuberculosis patients.

Even the doctors and nurses (female soldiers) treating the patients had pale

skin, which made me fear that the hospital was filled with tuberculosis patients.

In addition, due to their limited mobility, patients were unable to go to the

bathroom on their own, creating a foul odor in the hospital room. The soldiers

who endured surgery in a weak state were basically skeletons; only in their eyes

was any semblance of life. 

I walked out of the building with my friend because the sight of the hospital

room was so devastating, feeling like I was going to throw up. My friend and I

sat on a stone bench at the end of the front yard, where we talked.

I asked my friend if all the patients in the hospital were tuberculosis patients,

and he whispered into my ear. “There are more radiation exposure patients

than tuberculosis patients. Outwardly, they look like tuberculosis patients, but

they’re actually suffering from ‘Blood Blight.’” After the second nuclear test in

2009, more soldiers were exposed to radiation, especially those who re-entered

the facility to restore it a month after the test and those who served at the

Yeongbyon nuclear facility.”

My friend had known about the dangers of radiation after taking classes at

the military university. So when he learned that radiation-exposed patients were

hospitalized, he was so scared that he paid a bribe to be relocated to a relatively

clean officers’ ward.

My friend also said he’d heard directly from his military doctor that “radiation-

exposed patients disguised as tuberculosis patients would be discharged within

days and wouldn’t survive the first month or two after being discharged.”

He shared with me the anger in his heart as he watched the North Korean

authorities’ apathy about the lives and safety of their soldiers.

“The effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, have been felt for

decades. Sending soldiers to the area just a month after the nuclear test makes

me wonder if the military is conducting biological tests on its soldiers.”

My friend went on to tell me the story behind the directive that went out to the 131st

Bureau to “stay clear of nuclear-related projects.”

A soldier who was part of the 131st Bureau at the Yongbyon nuclear facility had

been transporting the same supplies for over ten years. One day, pretending that his

car had broken down during a transport mission, he broke away from the ranks

and parked his car on a remote road. Then, with a hammer, he began tearing

apart a thick wooden box measuring one meter in width, length, and height in

the car’s cargo compartment. 

When he opened the wooden board, he saw a thin

metal plate inside, and when he pried open the metal plate, he saw something

wrapped in aluminum sheeting. Even more curious about the contents, he tore

off the aluminum sheeting, revealing a plate made of lead. At that point, he

gave upon dismantling and roughly hammered the pieces back together with a

hammer.

The next day, however, the North Korean military and state security

departments realized the shipment had been damaged and investigated the

driver for a month. But strangely, instead of reinstating the driver, the unit sent

him on leave and provided him with whatever food he wanted. He was buried a

month later, a cold corpse.

In the wake of this incident, the 131st Bureau reportedly issued a directive to

all subordinate units: “Do not take any interest in nuclear weapons or nuclear-

related projects; any misbehavior will be a self-defeating act that will lead to your

death.”

The horrific things I saw and heard at the hospital stayed with me long after

I returned from my visit, and I was traumatized by the radiation exposure.

Eventually, out of fear, I stopped contacting my friend after graduating from

university.

Everything I’ve written so far is faithful to what I saw and heard back then.

I hope my testimony will help deter North Korea from developing nuclear

weapons. Thank you.

This testimony is featured in the witness collection 'Witness Accounts of Radiation Exposure from North Korea’s Nuclear Tests', published by the North Korea Writers in Exile PEN Center.

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