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Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association postpones health checkups of A-bomb survivors in North Korea

by Sakiko Masuda, Staff Writer

On June 15, the Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association, at a meeting of the executive board, decided to postpone health checkups of A-bomb survivors (hibakusha) in North Korea scheduled for this September to the next fiscal year. The association reached this decision after the Japanese government called for a halt to the checkups in the wake of the sinking of a South Korean patrol ship.

The association was planning to dispatch specialists to the cities of Sariwon and Pyongyang, where many returnees from Hiroshima to North Korea reside. It is said that the association, at the beginning of this month, received a request from the Japanese government to put off the dispatch.

The association postponed its plan to send doctors to North Korea in November 2009, too, due to North Korea's nuclear tests. As Japan has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, the Japanese government's relief measures for hibakusha overseas are not extended to survivors in North Korea. If realized, these will be the first full-scale checkups in North Korea by doctors from the A-bombed city of Hiroshima.

(Originally published on June 16, 2010)

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