North also detects radiation traces

North Korea revealed the level of radiation in its air for the first time in a recent media dispatch, saying the amount was not enough to cause public harm.

Traces of radioactive materials, such as iodine and cesium, were reported found in the communist state’s major cities earlier this week, but the official media did not disclose their amounts.

In a dispatch carried Thursday by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, the regime said it detected 0.03 millibecquerel (mBq) of iodine-131 and 0.04 mBq of cesium-137 per cubic meter of air “apparently from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.”

“The amount of iodine-131 is one-240,000th of the permitted limit. Experts are of the view that it does not cause public health concerns,” the KCNA said in its dispatch monitored in Seoul.

The traces were detected by “radioactivity monitoring stations” that have “strengthened the monitoring of radioactive substances,” it said. In a report broadcast on the official Korean Central Broadcasting Station, a medical scientist advised people to eat seaweed and drink beer.

Yonhap