A major antinuclear group began a series of campaigns Sunday in Tokyo ahead of the 59th anniversary of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with its focus on North Korea's nuclear program and denuclearization in Northeast Asia.
The Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs (Gensuikin) hosted an annual international meeting attended by guest speakers, including experts on nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula, U.S. nuclear policies and Japanese-North Korean relations.
"Unlike Iraq, North Korea is (geopolitically) surrounded by strong countries. It is the North Korean leaders themselves who feel threatened the most by other countries in the area," Lee Jong Wong, a professor at Rikkyo University (St. Paul's University) in Tokyo, told an audience of some 100 people.