U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon confirmed Tuesday with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada that Japan and the world body will aim for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Ban arrived in Tokyo in the afternoon and will visit Nagasaki on Thursday and Hiroshima on Friday, which marks the 65th anniversary of that city's atomic bombing. He will be the first U.N. secretary general to attend the annual commemorative service at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
"I will visit Nagasaki and Hiroshima to send a very important and strong message to the world that the nuclear threat is real and we must do everything we can to build on the current global momentum toward a nuclear weapon-free world," Ban told a news conference. "We cannot find any more appropriate location than Hiroshima and Nagasaki to send out such a strong message."