UNITED NATIONS, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will visit Japan next week to pay tribute to the victims of U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II and hold talks with the country's government, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky has said.
"The secretary general hopes that his visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki will draw attention to the urgent need to achieve global nuclear disarmament," Nesirky said on Wednesday.
Ban will be the first UN chief to take part in an annual ceremony commemorating the victims of the 1945 tragedy, he said, adding that the exact dates of the visit will be announced later.
Ban is expected to begin his visit with talks with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in Tokyo, Nesirky said.
The memorial ceremony will take place on August 6. On this day in 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima; Nagasaki was attacked three days later.
The bombings, the world's only nuclear attacks, killed at least 215,000 people and survivors have developed various illnesses from the exposure to radiation, including cancer and liver disease.
RIA Novosti
