The awarding of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is resonating in the Marshall Islands, boosting hopes there will be no repeat of its exposure to radiation from nearly 70 U.S. nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958.
"I am very glad for ICAN, that they received the recognition. I think a nuclear ban treaty is a realistic long-term goal," President Hilda Heine said in the Pacific island nation's capital of Majuro, in an interview conducted before the Dec. 10 award ceremony that took place in Oslo some 12,400 km away.
"It gives countries like the Marshall Islands hope that perhaps, in the future, we would be able to eliminate nuclear (weapons) in the world," she said.