Japan, Marshall Islands to work on nuclear abolition+

TOKYO, Oct. 14 Kyodo - Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Litokwa Tomeing, president of the Marshall Islands, agreed Wednesday to work together for the elimination of nuclear weapons as nuclear-damaged countries, Japanese officials said.

''Japan and the Marshal Islands, which share the experience of going through
nuclear damage, should cooperate to create a world free of nuclear weapons,''
Hatoyama was quoted by the officials as saying to Tomeing in their meeting at
the premier's office in Tokyo.
Hatoyama also touched upon the Fukuryu Maru No. 5, a Japanese fishing boat that
was exposed to radiation from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test on Bikini Atoll, part
of the Marshall Islands, in 1954, according to the officials.
Two Japanese cities -- Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- suffered U.S. atomic bombings
in August 1945.
In their talks that lasted about 30 minutes, Tomeing responded that the two
countries should work closely toward nuclear abolition, noting his Pacific
Ocean nation experienced a series of nuclear tests by the United States, they
said.
The president also commended Hatoyama for his speech late last month at a U.N.
climate change meeting in which he pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by
25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
The speech was ''a great encouragement'' to the international community,
Tomeing was quoted as saying to Hatoyama.
==Kyodo
2009-10-14 23:05:22