Malaysia’s Mahathir calls on Japan to support UN nuclear ban treaty

The elder statesman said Japan was a natural fit for the pact, as the only country on Earth to come under wartime nuclear attack

He also urged Tokyo and Seoul to resolve their differences through dialogue, as disputes between the two rage on over wartime forced labour and trade

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A mushroom cloud hangs over Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb to be used in anger was detonated on August 6, 1945. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:43pm, 7 Aug 2019Updated: 11:03pm, 7 Aug 2019

Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday that Japan should support a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons as the world’s only country to come under wartime nuclear attack.

In an interview in the southwestern Japanese city of Fukuoka, the elder statesman also urged Japan and South Korea to try to resolve their dispute over historical and trade issues through dialogue, rather than confrontation.

“I think Japan is one country that should work hard to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons, in fact, to get rid of all nuclear weapons because Japan is the only country in the world that suffered from bombing by nuclear device so Japan knows how horrible it is when nuclear weapons are used,” Mahathir said.

In arguing that Japan should sign the treaty banning nuclear weapons, Mahathir said other countries could emulate Japan’s constitution that bars it from waging war as a means of settling international disputes, saying it is the only such constitutional provision in the world.

The UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted in July 2017. So far, 70 counties and regions have become signatories, according to the UN office on disarmament.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday. Photo: Kyodo

The pact needs a total of 50 ratifications to come into effect. On Tuesday, the 74th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Bolivia became the 25th UN member to ratify it.