Hiroshima, Nagasaki blast N Korea

TOKYO: The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities atom-bombed at the end of World War II, have attacked North Korea over its announcement that it had conducted a nuclear test.

Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba released a statement calling on North Korea to immediately terminate its nuclear weapons and nuclear projects.

"I feel great anger over North Korea's conducting of a nuclear test, despite the fact that many cities and groups had sought its suspension," he said yesterday, urging
Pyongyang to fulfill its responsibility on nuclear arms reduction.

At a hastily called press conference yesterday, Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito called the announced test an "act of violence" conducted in defiance of international calls not to carry it out. "The North Korean people are not aware of the true terror of nuclear weapons," Ito said.

Antinuclear groups in Japan also expressed outrage, with Terumi Tanaka, head of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, known as Hidankyo, saying, "It is deplorable. We didn't think North Korea would do it, and we didn't want it to do it."

"The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that permitted nuclear weapons' possession by five countries including the United States is an unfair framework, but we still cannot
permit another country to possess nuclear arms," he added.

Tanaka also expressed concern that North Korea could head in a "more dangerous direction if other countries impose economic sanctions.

Masakazu Yasui, deputy director of the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, or Gensuikyo, said North Korea brought renewed tension in Northeastern Asia.