Eliminate nuclear weapons -UN Chief

JAPAN: United Nations Chief Ban Ki-moon Thursday called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, during a visit to Nagasaki, one of the two Japanese cities hit by US atom bombs in World War II.

“The only way to ensure that such weapons will never again be used is to eliminate them all,” Ban said as he met with elderly survivors, known as “hibakusha”, at the ground zero site of the blast.

Speaking close to the 65th anniversary of the attack, Ban pledged “solidarity with the citizens of Nagasaki” and said: “I have come to honour the hibakusha for the extraordinary hardships they have had to endure.”

Ban will become the first UN Chief to attend the anniversary ceremony commemorating the August 6, 1945 atom bomb attack on Hiroshima, which was followed three days later by the Nagasaki bombing. AFP