Aso, Hatoyama differ over nuke-free world on Hiroshima anniversary

HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Taro Aso stressed the need for Japan to stay under the U.S.
nuclear umbrella while opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama supported U.S.
President Barack Obama in seeking a nuclear-free world Thursday as they marked
the day Hiroshima was atom-bombed in World War II.
''Located next to a country ambitious to make an attack by possessing nuclear
arms, Japan is in alliance with the United States, which is trying to deter the
move with nuclear weapons,'' Aso told reporters, referring to North Korea,
after attending a commemorative ceremony hosted by the Hiroshima city office.
''It is not true to say if someone unilaterally abandons them, everyone else
will follow,'' Aso said, adding, ''It is unimaginable that nuclear weapons will
be abolished altogether in the world.''
Aso made the comments while echoing the widespread mantra, ''Realizing a
nuclear-free world is an earnest desire of Japan as the only country falling
victim to atomic-bombing.''
Hatoyama, who heads the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which
opinion polls suggest could thrust Aso from power in the Aug. 30 general
election, said, ''Realizing a nuclear-free world as called for by U.S.
President Obama is exactly the moral mission of our country as the only
atomic-bombed state.''
At a ceremony organized by the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers
Organizations in Hiroshima, Hatoyama said Japan should lead the world in
efforts to abolish nuclear arms, particularly at the coming U.N. review
conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty next May.
He said to attain that goal, it is important to directly appeal to leaders of
other countries, adding he is willing to work for an early realization of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty.
Hatoyama said he ''will not spare any effort to denuclearize the Korean
Peninsula,'' alluding to North Korea's second nuclear test in May.
==Kyodo