Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2020 November 18 - 24 TOP3 [PEACE]

Japanese and S. Korean Hibakusha organizations jointly call on nations in Six-Party Talks to ratify N-ban treaty

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) and its South Korean counterpart sent nations in the Six-Party Talks their joint statement calling on the six countries to ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on the occasion of the treaty’s entry into force and to work for the elimination of nuclear weapons, Akahata learned on November 20.

The statement states that after the actual enforcement of the treaty on January 22 next year, not only the use, development, and possession of nuclear arms, but also the threat to use such arms will be illegal. It stresses that this will open a new era in which nuclear weapons and humans cannot legally coexist.

The statement states that Japanese and South Korean victims of the atomic bomb attacks have worked together with citizens around the world and finally succeeded in establishing the antinuke UN treaty and are about to have it come into force. It continues to state that the problem is that the nuclear powers and their allies are refusing to ratify the treaty, including Japan and South Korea.

The statement points out that although the Six-Party Talks were launched with the aim of resolving the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, it shows little progress due to mutual distrust between the parties. It continues to point out that this will cause a delay in normalization of Tokyo-Pyongyang and Washington-Pyongyang relations, which became the biggest concern in regard to peace in Northeast Asia in recent years.

In the statement, Hibakusha in Japan and South Korea called on the six countries to ratify the UN N-ban treaty without delay and take the lead in efforts to realize a world without nuclear weapons.

Past related articles:
> World's scientists call on nuclear-weapons states to join N-ban treaty [ November 11, 2020]
> Hibakusha celebrate news that UN nuclear weapons ban treaty will take effect starting next January [ October 26, 2020]