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Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association to send six doctors to North Korea, provide health checkups for A-bomb survivors

by Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer

On September 29, the Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association officially announced that, for the first time, it will send medical doctors to North Korea to conduct health checkups for A-bomb survivors living in that nation. The six doctors, including Shizuteru Usui, president of the association, will visit two cities between October 11 and 15 to conduct these examinations. One city is Pyongyang and the other is Sariwon, a city on the outskirts of Pyongyang, and a number of people who experienced the atomic bombing of Hiroshima are believed to be living there.

The association had planned to start the visit on October 4, but rescheduled the trip after receiving a request from the North Korean side that the association postpone the visit because the original date coincided with the anniversary of the Korean Workers’ Party’s foundation.

In 2008, it was estimated that there were 382 survivors in North Korea. It is also believed that 20 percent of them have died to date. Since the country has no diplomatic relations with Japan, North Korean survivors are not covered by the Japanese government’s relief measures. Since 2009 the Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association has planned health checkups in North Korea three times, but it was forced to abandon its plans due to North Korea’s nuclear tests and other factors.

The Japanese government has requested that the association cancel this trip, too. But Dr. Usui appeared at a press conference held at the Hiroshima Medical Hall in downtown Hiroshima and expressed his determination to make the visit, saying, “I would like A-bomb survivors to receive medical support regardless of their nationality or ethnic background. There are difficulties at the governmental level, but we would like to take this first step by providing humanitarian assistance.”

The doctors will interview A-bomb survivors and, as representatives of the Japan Chapter of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), will meet their North Korean counterparts to request that they attend the World Congress of the IPPNW to be held in Hiroshima in August 2012.

(Originally published on September 30, 2011)

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