hello and welcome to "newsline." i'm hideshi hara in tokyo. u.n. secretary ban ki-moon called for nuclear abolition at the 65th hiroshima peace ceremony on friday. ban became the first u.n. chief to attend the annual ceremony on august 6, the day the united states dropped an atomic bomb at the close of world war ii in 1945.

>> together we are at ground zero, to a world free of weapons of mass destruction. >> after the ceremony ban proposed the u.n. security council hold regular summits to discuss a nuclear free world which 2020. three nuclear powers sent envoys to the ceremony for the first time. the u.s. ambassador to japan john roos released a statement calling for a world without nuclear weapons but he didn't give a speech or lay a wreath during the ceremony. >> the mood on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, nuclear disarmament is changing. we heard from akiba about the successful npt review conference

in may, and the british government announced at that conference the number of nuclear warheads it has and we felt now was the time to attend for the first time. >> nuclear disarmament is absolutely necessary for arms reduction in general. france will take model steps and will propose many initiatives. >> the world's attention was focused on this year's ceremony. here is the story of what happened in hiroshima today. >> since early morning, many people gathered in the city to pray for the a-bomb victims. >> translator: i know i should share my story but it is very hard to talk about that horrible memory.

>> the peace memorial ceremony started at 8:00 in the morning. at the exact time the bomb was dropped, there was a minute of silence to pay tribute to the victims. >> now is the time to devote ourselves unreservedly to the most crucial duty, facing the human family, to give the hibakusha within their lifetimes, a nuclear weapon-free world. >> u.s. ambassador to japan john roos officially attended the ceremony. this year's ceremony also drew the attention of the foreign press.

>> we found out it was a very historic ceremony this year, so we decided to come and cover it because as an american citizen and a world citizen i think it's important to be here and the journalists important to cover. >> ban ki-moon, the first u.n. secretary general to attend the ceremony. >> together let us put the last fire, put out the last fire of hiroshima. let us replace that flame with a light of hope. let us realize our dream of a world free of nuclear weapons so that our children and all succeeding generations can live in freedom, security, and peace. >> he witnessed the painful memories of hiroshima at the peace memorial museum. a survivor's testimony about the devastating impact of the atomic bomb deeply touched the secretary general. >> i was blown a distance of ten meters. the next thing i knew the site where the school building had stood was full of people with terrible burns, all over their

bodies. my friends were crying. >> those records will guide us toward the right direction, inspiring us to work harder in nuclear disarmament. >> the day will hopefully be remembered as a major step forward in realizing the goal of a nuclear-free world. >> by sending the u.s. ambassador to the ceremony, what is president barack obama aiming to achieve? >> president obama has announced his intention to rid the world of nuclear weapons in a speech last year in prague. in april, he signed a new nuclear disarmament treaty with russia and hosted a nuclear security summit of world leaders in washington. we shouldn't forget the persistent effort by people in hiroshima and nagasaki,

especially those exposed to radiation. they have been very active in telling the world about the devastation that the bombs can cause. >> ban ki-moon is from asia. what kind of attention does that cau cause? >> well, it's giving the survivors hope that their voices will be heard in south korea and beyond. i met with one of them. >> reporter: this man traveled to hiroshima to listen to secretary general ban ki-moon. he's one of the survivors of the atomic bomb attack.

when the bomb was struck on hiroshima on august 1945, an estimated 50,000 koreans was exposed to the bomb. 20,000 of them died. the korean peninsula and from 1910. many came to work from in japan. some voluntarily, some forcibly. the memorial for korean victims in hiroshima's peace memorial park, a day before the ceremony, hur joined koreans who live in japan at the ceremony commemorating the victims. his parents came to japan in the 1920s to run a construction company. the bomb exploded about 1 1/2 kilometers from his house. he was 3 years old and had moved

to the suburban in case of an attack by allied forces. he was exposed to radiation the next day when he went home. he also found out his brother had died. >> i prayed for my brother and said i was sorry that it took 65 years for me to come and see him. >> the health ministry says more than 3,000 atomic bomb survivors live in south korea now. he kept his status as a survivor a secret for a long time. he was afraid he'd face discrimination. he was worried he wouldn't get a job.

it even took a while for him to tell his wife and children about his past. hur only found out in the last decade how to apply for support from japan. he now has a health certificate issued by the hiroshima local government. it officially recognized him atomic bomb survivor. he receives $390 a month. but some korean survivors found it difficult to get the certificate because they had to go to japan to receive it. the country changed the system two years ago, and survivors can now apply abroad. south korea offers less support than the japanese. hur received $80 every month since 1993. it is paid through south korea's

red cross. japan has contributed to the fund. >> the japanese government was unconcerned with korean survivors. it didn't give us any information. the south korean government had no intention to keep us informed either. >> the japanese people are told about the atomic bomb survivors, but in south korea that link to the past isn't as strong. >> the atomic bombing made japan surrender, so it was good in a way. >> i knew an atomic bomb was dropped on hiroshima and many people were killed. but i didn't know that many south koreans died. >> hur met the u.n. secretary general who is also a korean. ban ki-moon paid a visit to hiroshima's memorial for korean victims.

hur is hoping ban's words and presence will help bring attention to his atomic bomb survivors. >> i'm really moved by his visit to hiroshima. it gave me courage. i will go back and talk to korean survivors about this and let people there know that we exist. >> hiroshima will likely continue to symbolize the horror of atomic weapons and inspire the anti-nuclear movement for many years to come. the city's mayor, tadatoshi akiba, invited u.s. president barack obama to visit. obama says he wants to come in the future. people in hiroshima hope the attendance at this year's ceremony by the u.n. secretary general and the u.s. ambassador will pave the way for obama's visit and speed up nuclear disarmament. >> thank you junko in hiroshima.

>> and in our tokyo studio is an expert on nuclear disarmament. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> what's encouraging to see nuclear disarmament momentum rising but realistically there are obstacles. is it possible to realize a world without nuclear weapons. >> yes, there are obstacles but the world is made up of human beings. if they decide this is a terrible weapon to possess and use then i think it can be abolished. >> and everything depends on how serious the nuclear powers are, right? >> yes indeed. after all, it is those five nuclear weapons states which are accepted to have nuclear weapons and it happened that they have veto power in the security council. so it is very important that

they collectively agree to give up those weapons. >> could it happen before this year? >> it may be a little difficult. but over the years, i think this can be done. >> and two of the nuclear power states, namely the united states and russia, signed a new treaty to decrease their nuclear warheads and launch vehicles. certainly a good start, but does it go all the way to the end for total abolishment of nuclear weapons? >> i think it's a good start. it's rather modest start, but two of them have 95% of the nuclear weapons in the world, so it is important they agreed to

reduce their weapons. and i hope it's better that the treaty is now ratified and implemented as soon as possible and they go to the next stage. >> what are the reasons for the u.s. to agree to this nuclear warheads reduction? >> well, president obama declared he would work for a world without nuclear weapons. so this is the one way to do so. in the meantime, the u.s. is in fact shifting from nuclear weapons to more advanced accurate precision weapon, conventional weapons and they think this is a better option. i think they will still be moving that direction. >> can russia follow suit? >> i hope so. they are behind the u.s. in those kind of advanced weapons, so they now feel they have to depend on nuclear weapons. but i hope they can be persuaded. >> and turning from nuclear disarmament to nuclear nonproliferation, countries like north korea and iran are eager to acquire nuclear weapons technology and also terrorist groups are trying to get their

hands on such weapons. what is the road map for the realization of a global zero nuclear weapons? >> well, i think this is a new challenge. in those cases, very often they first pretend to be observing the nonproliferation treaty but behind the scene, secretly they develop nuclear weapons. this is harder to prevent but we have to do so otherwise as far as new weapon states one after another. the world will not be able to achieve a world without nuclear weapons. so we have to do so, we have to tighten export control, we have to tighten technology transfer, we have to tighten the control of the nuclear material around the world. we have to implement a number of measures. >> thank you very much for your insight. nuclear disarmament expert at the japan institute of international affairs.

the u.s. jobless rate remained at 5.5%. concern about the economy is expected to rise after nonforeign payrolls declined. the labor department announced that it declined for the second straight month. the survey shows that the number of temporary jobs dropped by 143,000 while private employment increased by 71,000 jobs, which was less than expected by the market. in the manufacturing sector, the number of new jobs increased by 36,000 while construction jobs declined by 11,000. the survey indicates that the labor market has yet to show signs of recovery as a result of

the weak employment situation in the private sector. japan's justice minister presided over the inaugural meeting over capital pun mishment. she expressed hope for debate on the death penalty system. >> the death penalty is a fundamental issue for japan's judicial system. i hope our study provides the momentum for the debate on the matter. >> she's personally opposed to the death penalty. however, she witnessed two executions last month. the first time a justice minister has done so. the ministry study group has decided to conduct a public opinion survey on capital punishment and will discuss appropriate methods for disclosing information about executions and the families of crime victims. the justice ministry plans to allow the ministry access to the chamber later this month.

for the first time under its new humanitarian system, japan will accept refugees from myanmar. they will arrive on september 28th. 32 refugees from six families led persecution by the myanmar government. after arriving in japan, they will receive a six-month training course to learn the language and local customs. the government plans to accept 90 refugees from myanmar. a poll shows that a large percentage of people in both countries see north korea as a security threat. in their first joint survey, the two stations interviewed people

20 years or older from june 26th to july 4th. nearly 200 people responded n japan, 92% of the respondents said that north korea poses a threat. when asked to site political issues with north korea, many people in japan said the abductions of japanese and the nuclear program and separated families due to the north koreay war. regarding ways to address the nuclear issue, 60% called for strong action, including diplomatic pressure. but in south korea, opinions were divided. 47% said that the forceful action was needed while 41% called for a humanitarian and economic aid. here's some of the news received

across asia. we begin with this item from china. shanghai expo organizers are scrambling for electric fans and ice as it's 37 degrees celsius. long lines have waiting times up to three hours. the organizers are offering sun stroke treatments to keep the visitors entertained. hundreds of artists from 41 cities display their skills at the first chinese paper cutting. visitors were surprised by the variety of designs and many used the color red and the symbols of good luck and animals and wealth. this is an intangible cultural

heritage of humanity. thailand zoo has a birthday for the panda that just turned ten. zoo visitors sang happy birthday and blew out candles near the enclosure. he's on loan to the zoo from china and weighs about 148 kilograms and is in good shape heading into his second decade. he's the father of the first panda to have been born in thailand. hi there. time for an update on the world weather. there's going to be plenty of activity. we have the southwest monsoon bringing in heavy rain from the philippines we've already seen problems with flooding,

particularly in thigh laailand. coming into eastern china as well, the heavy rain particularly taiwan, you're going to see hefty downpours as well. that will be with you through saturday as well.sunday is goin, too, because another system is brewing. this one in northern china. that's going to be heading into the northeast and it's quite a powerful one. so at least in the realm of about 100 millimeters of rain in just 24 hours could fall and this is going to be falling on already saturated land. it's been very soggy this week so definitely there will be concern for flooding. temperaturewise, the mid-30s across much of the region. 33 in tokyo. 34 in shanghai. 35 for you in chong.

all right. now, into europe we go. those storms in the central part of the continent are going to be staying put into saturday. moving east here, we will see it move down into the northern balkins as well. you could also see about 100 millimeters of rain in just a space of 24 hours. so definitely concerns for flash flooding, particularly in low lying areas. out to the west, this looks like it's going to be very messy but actually the rain is going to be quite light. the wind from this system will be quite gusty. and then we see the storms also moving into the mainland europe. but, again, quite light. staying dry and high pressure here across much of france and the siberian peninsula and out to the east, it's going to be very dry and hot here, too. i want to show you video from the ukraine.

it's not just western russia that is dealing with forest fires. this is eastern ukraine and fires have burned close to 1,000 hector of land. this is the worst heat wave in the country's recorded history. temperatures have been up near the 40-degree mark here as well. and unfortunately there is going to be very little relief in terms of the rain. of course, we have all of that rainfall in the center of europe. but if you can take a look at the way the rain is moving, it's just not getting in further east. there's a couple of reasons for this. we've got a very stubborn, large high pressure system over the east and then this is the jet stream which is just a fast moving conveyor belt of air. it sort of prevents that ring from moving in. that said, there's going to be a few light showers moving into moscow but nothing significant, certainly nothing to put a dent into the situation. 38 degrees in moscow and blistering heat here through the rest of the continent. 22 in berlin. a few showers here and 38 down

in lisbon. here's your extended forecast. the popular summer festival kicked off in northeastern japan. the celebration originates from chinese folklore. they fell in love but could only meet once a year. the 400-year-old animal festival is famous for the ornate

decorations. streamers are arranged along the streets of the city's main shopping district. to attract customers after world war ii, the district began the decorations in front of the shops. >> this year the festival holds on a weekend so organizers expect 2.2 million visitors to attend over a three days until sunday. now we have a pair of stories about animals from japanese zooses. in central japan, the second world's oldest hippo has died at the age of 58. he was found dead in an outdoor pool after eating her usual

meals that day. the african-born was the second oldest hippo captive. she was over 100 years old in human years. and in a zoo from western tokyo, three more tiger cubs have made their debut. they were facing extinction in the wild. the male and two female cubs were born at the geological park on july 7th. each wayed a kilogram at birth but they have since grown to three times that size thanks to the mother's milk. only about 350 adults are left in the wild. the keeper of the cubs says he hopes many people will grab this opportunity to see the rare

animals. and that concludes this edition of "newsline." we'll be back in 30 minutes. thanks for joining us on nhk world.