Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project in North East Asia

During June this year a group of NWIP students and doctor from Sweden and France visited IPPNW affiliates in three countries in North East Asia to meet students within health proffessions, discuss and enhance the cooperation between our affiliates and promote the Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project.

12-16^th of June: Visiting Korean Anti-Nuclear Peace Physicians (KANPP) in Pyongyang, DPRK.

17-19^th of June: Visiting students from Chinese Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (CPPNW) in Beijing, China.

20-23^rd of June: Attending the IPPNW North East Asian Regional Meeting in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. 

The following delegates attended this delegation:

Anne-Lorraine Bouquiaux – student representative of IPPNW France (China and Mongolia)

Johannes Norberg – student representative of IPPNW Sweden (SLMK)

Thomas Silfverberg – student representative of the SLMK Election Committee

Martin Tondel – Vice Chairman of SLMK

Wenjing Tao – Coordinator of NWIP

FIRST REGIONAL STUDENT MEETING OF NORTH EAST ASIA IN ”THE LAND OF THE BLUE SKY”

From China the NWIP delegation continued to Ulan Bator in Mongolia to attend the ---th North East Asia Regional Meeting. The student meeting covered the first day and during the remaining two days the main conference took place. The main theme of the conference was establishment of a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (NWFZ) in North East Asia.* A noble goal that however faces a lot of obstacles, which where discussed during these days. The conference attracted a lot of attention, and even the Mongolian president himself gave a speech at the opening ceremony that was broadcasted and reported in newspapers. However, in this report we will mainly focus on what was said during the student meeting.

*Mongolia declared itself as a single-state Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in 1992, the same year as the last Russian troops left the country. A North East Asian NWFZ would cover Mongolia, China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

For the first time around fifteen students from three countries in North East Asia (Japan, Mongolia, DPRK) attended this student meeting, which earlier consisted of mainly
Japanese students. It was also the first time that Mongolian students participated in IPPNW activities. The Japanese and Mongolian students gave excellent presentations about the medical effects of nuclear war and nuclear testing. NWIP played a significant role in the program by presenting our project and arranging three workshops discussing 1. Nuclear Weapon Basics 2. Nuclear weapon situation in North East Asia 3. Nuclear activism. The main outcomes of the student meeting was as follows:

- An annual exchange tour between Japanese, Mongolian and Chinese IPPNW students, mainly organised by the Japanese affiliate.

- Revitalize the idea of a Nuclear Weapon Exhibition Tour in North East Asia.

- T-shirt and picture competitions in high schools and primary schools, aiming at bringing out the Nuclear Weapon discussion on an early level.

- Seminars and presentation at universities about the topic.

We think that this first regional student meeting was of importance to bring the North East Asian group together for future cooperation. We also wanted to make NWIP known to students and doctors from this region, hoping that more students from North East Asia would like to join our activities with the support from the doctors.  Hopefully some contacts can be established with students in South Korea and China for the next meeting (NWIP can help them with this), having representatives from all countries in North East Asia.  

In conclusion, our visit to IPPNW affiliates in DPRK, China and Mongolia has enhanced our relationships with our connections in the North East Asia region. Some of our purposes was to establish contacts for longer delegations from NWIP in the future, to encourage disarmament activities and bring their voices to the rest of IPPNW. To us personally, we have gained much more knowledge about these countries and developed further understanding during our visit. This has been invaluable.