The South Korean government honored Hitoshi Motoshima, the late mayor of Nagasaki, on Thursday in recognition of his support for Korean atomic bomb survivors.

Park Jin-woong, South Korean consul general in Fukuoka, handed a letter of commendation to Motoshima's wife Sueko in Nagasaki. Motoshima died last year at the age of 92.

According to Nobuto Hirano, co-leader of a support group for atomic bomb survivors living overseas who were in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the attacks in 1945, Motoshima visited South Korea in 1992 and met with some of the survivors. He also extended support for a South Korean atomic bomb survivors group.

Sueko expressed gratitude for the letter of commendation, while the consul general said he hopes both countries will cooperate in supporting South Korean A-bomb survivors.

Motoshima was shot by a member of a right-wing group in 1990 while he was in office, after saying Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, bore responsibility for World War II.