UN chief to visit Japan to meet PM, attend Nagasaki ceremony

CAMEROON, Cameroon – Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is heading to Japan next week to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and attend the ceremony marking the 73rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

U.N. spokeswoman Eri Kaneko says Guterres will be the first U.N. secretary-general to attend the annual ceremony in Nagasaki. His predecessor, Ban Ki-moon, attended the Hiroshima ceremony in 2010.

The Aug. 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000 people, and the bombing of Nagasaki three days later killed another 70,000, prompting Japan’s surrender in World War II.

Kaneko says Guterres will meet victims from both bombings and Nagasaki’s mayor on Aug. 9 “to discuss their ideas on how to promote nuclear disarmament.”

He will hold wide-ranging talks with Abe in Tokyo on Aug. 8, including on North Korea, she said.