Hiroshima, Nagasaki mayors, A-bomb sufferers blast N Korea

The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Monday attacked North Korea over its announcement that it had conducted a nuclear test. "I feel great anger over North Korea's conducting of a nuclear test, despite the fact that many cities and groups had sought its suspension," Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said, urging Pyongyang to fulfill its responsibility on nuclear arms reduction.

Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito called the announced test an "act of violence" conducted in defiance of international calls not to carry it out. "The North Korean people are not aware of the true terror of nuclear weapons," Ito said. Antinuclear groups in Japan also expressed outrage, with Terumi Tanaka, head of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, known as Hidankyo, saying, "It is deplorable. We didn't think North Korea would do it, and we didn't want it to do it."