Okada, U.N. chief Ban reaffirm cooperation to realize nuke-free world+

TOKYO, Aug. 3 Kyodo -
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon agreed
Tuesday that Japan and the United Nations will cooperate to realize a world
without nuclear weapons, as the two met before Ban's planned trip to Hiroshima
to attend a ceremony commemorating the U.S. atomic bombing.
Okada said at a joint press conference that the two also shared the view that
North Korea should take concrete actions following international condemnation
over the March sinking of a South Korean warship, and also recognized the need
to reform the U.N. Security Council.
Ban, who will be the first U.N. chief to attend the annual ceremony in
Hiroshima to commemorate the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan
city, told reporters he is ''privileged'' to take part in the ''very important,
meaningful and moving'' event.
''I sincerely hope that through my attendance at this ceremony, I will be able
to send out to the international community a strong message to the whole world
that we must strive and work harder to realize a world free of nuclear weapons
and proliferation,'' Ban said.
Okada also said he believes the U.N. chief's visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki is
''historic'' and pledged to work with the world body to further increase
international momentum to realize a nuclear-free world.
He said Japan and Australia will co-sponsor a meeting of foreign ministers on
nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation in September on the sidelines of a
U.N. General Assembly meeting.
With regard to North Korea, the U.N. secretary general from South Korea said he
is ''deeply concerned'' about Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions and expressed hope
that the six-party talks on denuclearizing the North ''will be resumed as soon
as possible.''
Ban expressed his readiness to facilitate the restart of the six-way talks that
involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia and urged
Tokyo to try to improve its ties with Pyongyang.
''When we want to have peace and security in North East Asia, we cannot do it
without the improvement of the relationship between Japan and DPRK. I hope the
Japanese government will look at this issue very seriously,'' he said. DPRK is
the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea.
Okada and Ban also recognized the need to accelerate the U.N. Security Council
reform. Japan aspires to become a permanent member of the council.
Ban said he is aware of Japan's ''efforts to promote a more representative and
transparent and accountable security council.''
''As U.N. Secretary General, I spare no efforts to facilitate the ongoing
negotiations among the member states to achieve this reform of the Security
Council, which is absolutely necessary considering the tremendous changes in
the international political scene since the inception of the United Nations,''
he said.
The two also compared notes on cooperation between Japan and the world body in
such areas as peacekeeping operations and efforts to achieve the U.N.
Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction.
==Kyodo
2010-08-04 00:00:32