NEW YORK (Kyodo) U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said Monday his recent visit to Japan, including stops in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombings, renewed his pledge to abolish nuclear weapons.
"My visit strengthened my personal conviction that we must do everything in our power to realize a world free of nuclear weapons," Ban told reporters at his first news conference since his return from Japan.
He said he will convene a high-level meeting on disarmament Sept. 24 in the hope that high-ranking leaders from all U.N. member states will discuss ways to "revitalize the work of the Conference on Disarmament and build consensus on the broader challenges of disarmament."
On his visit to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Ban said, "I have been visiting many countries, I have been meeting various different types of groups and I have been attending many different events, but that was one of the most moving experiences for me."
Ban said his visit, the first by a U.N. secretary general, likely influenced other nuclear-weapon states to send representatives in record numbers.