South Korean Hiroshima victims seek relief

TOKYO, AUG. 5. South Korean survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima gathered in the city's Peace Memorial park today, a day ahead of the 56th anniversary of the bombing, and called for compensation for victims now living abroad. The ceremony, at a monument to the 2,588 South Koreans who died as a result of the bomb, was attended by some 200 South Korean survivors and their families, Kyodo news agency said.

There are about 2,300 survivors now living in South Korea, who have been unable to receive benefits under Japan's atomic bomb victims relief law because they have left Japan.

``It is an issue that should be resolved while surviving Hibakusha (atomic bombing victims) are alive,'' Kyodo quoted Mr. Pak So Sung, chief of the Hiroshima regional unit of the pro- Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan, as saying.

In June, a Japanese district court ordered the Osaka prefectural Government to pay $1,374 to Kwak Kwi-hun, 76, a Korean survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, who now lives in Seoul.

But the Japanese Government appealed the court ruling later that month. The Justice Minister, Mr. Mayumi Moriyama, has said Japanese law does not require the central or local governments to pay medical allowances to survivors living abroad.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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