NAGASAKI -- Citizens and academics from across northeast Asia expressed concerns Saturday that both the activities of terrorists and the hardline stance adopted by the United States in diplomacy -- including the retaliatory attacks on Afghanistan -- threaten global peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.
"I am concerned about the possibility that terrorists could use fissionable materials, which the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned of," said Koichi Hunakoe, a professor at Nagasaki University, at a conference held in Nagasaki, itself the target of an atomic bomb 56 years ago.
About 150 people attended the seventh conference of citizens of nuclear free municipalities, organized by the Nuclear Free Zone Citizen Network Japan nongovernmental organization.