Hiroshima, Nagasaki Angered by N. Korea Nuclear Test

Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Sept. 3 (Jiji Press)--The atom-bombed Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were infuriated by a North Korean nuclear test on Sunday. "The nuclear test was very regrettable," Kazumi Matsui, mayor of Hiroshima, western Japan, told reporters. "I want North Korea to accept the spirit of Hiroshima, which is seeking a world without nuclear testing as it calls for the elimination of nuclear weapons and the attainment of permanent world peace." "We must resolutely protest North Korea," he added. Calling the nuclear test "an outrageous and reckless act," Hidehiko Yuzaki, governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, emphasized that the international community should unite to stop North Korea's provocations. Expressing strong anger, Tomihisa Taue, mayor of the southwestern city of Nagasaki, said in a statement that the reckless act is "absolutely intolerable" because it heightens the risk of nuclear arms being used again. In a separate statement, Hodo Nakamura, governor of Nagasaki Prefecture, said, "I have no choice but to feel strong anger" as the nuclear test "runs counter to the efforts for nuclear nonproliferation by the international community." North Korea claimed on Sunday that the country successfully conducted the same day a hydrogen bomb that can be loaded into an intercontinental ballistic missile in its sixth nuclear test. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by U.S. atomic bombs in August 1945 in the closing days of World War II. Hibakusha atomic bomb survivors also denounced the latest North Korean provocation. Referring to an international treaty to legally ban nuclear weapons, which was adopted at the United Nations in July, Kunihiko Sakuma, 72, an executive of an organization of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima Prefecture, said that the nuclear test "more clearly showed that North Korea goes against the global trend" for nuclear abolition. Sueichi Kido, 77, an official at the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Associations, or Nihon Hidankyo, said that the nuclear weapons ban treat will be "a major tool" for solving the North Korean problem, noting that international pressure alone cannot stop Pyongyang's provocations. "Japan should clarify its stance that nuclear weapons should never be allowed to be used," Kido said. END