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He said the adoption of the U.N. nuclear weapons ban, which was boycotted by all nuclear-armed nations, shows that most of the world supports that cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two recent test-firings of Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missiles suggest that major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago are within range of North Korean weapons. Such missiles could be armed with nuclear, biological or chemical warheads, although many experts say North Korea hasn\u2019t fully mastered miniaturizing nuclear warheads and might not have the technology to ensure a warhead would survive re-entry into the atmosphere from space or even hit an intended target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such developments draw mixed feelings from Kim Ji Nho, a pro-Pyongyang ethnic Korean who was born in Hiroshima. Kim, 71, is a \u201chibakusha,\u201d or atomic-bomb survivor, who was exposed to radiation when his mother, pregnant with him, went to the ruins of the city to search for a daughter who went missing in the blast. He grew up in a community of ethnic Koreans in the city and has a relative who had since moved to North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is critical of the U.S., and says only dialogue, not military actions or threats, can resolve tensions with the erratic leadership in Pyongyang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But regarding nuclear weapons, \u201cWe \u2018hibakusha\u2019 and our groups share a clear goal, which is to abolish nuclear weapons from the world,\u201d Kim said. \u201cNuclear weapons should never be used.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like his father, many Koreans were brought to Hiroshima, a wartime military hub, as forced laborers during Japan\u2019s colonization of the Korean Peninsula in the first half of the 20th century. They and their descendants have endured outright discrimination by Japanese. So have A-bomb survivors: Kim\u2019s father had told him to keep mum about his radiation exposure, because being \u201chibakusha\u201d could only mean more trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two survivors said Japan\u2019s refusal to join the U.N. nuclear treaty, apparently because it\u2019s protected under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, was heartbreaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his message to Hiroshima, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the presence of some 15,000 nuclear weapons along with \u201cdangerous rhetoric regarding their use\u201d has exacerbated these threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYet our dream of a world free of nuclear weapons remains far from reality,\u201d he said. \u201cThe states possessing nuclear weapons have a special responsibility to undertake concrete and irreversible steps in nuclear disarmament.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hopes that the U.S. and Japan might support the nuclear weapons ban rose during former President Barack Obama\u2019s 2016 visit to Hiroshima. But such expectation has dimmed as North Korea\u2019s threat has escalated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat if that young leader (Kim Jong Un) pushes a nuclear weapons launch button? I think neighboring Japan has a risk of being hit,\u201d said Tamio Ishida, 59, whose father was a survivor. \u201cI think tensions have risen and many people in Hiroshima share a sense of urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ayaka Kajihara, 18, a college student, says she imagined her late grandmother, also a \u201chibakusha,\u201d suffered greatly, though she was reluctant to discuss her past. Even so, she feels it was very important to learn what happened to the grandmother and her hometown 72 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 300,000 of the \u201chibakusha\u201d have died since the attack, including 5,530 in the past year. The average age of the survivors is more than 81 years. Many suffer from long lasting effects of radiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hope more people from the rest of Japan and overseas will visit Hiroshima and just see and feel the reality of what the atomic bomb has done, and start from there,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s how I started thinking about peace \u2014 by meeting \u2018hibakusha,\u2019 including my grandmother and hearing their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Associated Press writer Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hiroshima\u2019s appeal of \u201cnever again\u201d on the 72nd anniversary Sunday of the world\u2019s first atomic bomb attack has gained urgency as North Korea accelerates work on its nuclear weapons program, showing its growing prowess with increasingly frequent missile launches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":101829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1184],"class_list":["post-60654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-news"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"PLUPEV2AHFC2FOAV2D3BZUXXPI","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2017\/08\/06\/north-korean-missiles-add-urgency-to-hiroshima-a-bomb-appeals\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17218060802558.jpg.jpg\")
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