Beijing Urges Tokyo to Speed Up Destruction of WWII Chemical Weapons

MOSCOW, December 1 (Sputnik) – The Chinese government asked Japan on Monday to speed up the destruction of chemical weapons the Japanese left behind during World War II, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The two countries started the disposal process of chemical weapons in Northern China some time ago. According to Chinese media, the Japanese army left behind as many as 2 million tons of chemical weapons at the end of the war, most of them concentrated in the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, China Daily said.

“The Chinese side asks the Japanese side to increase its input of both personnel and materials in this regard and accelerate the destruction work of chemical weapons left by Japan in China,” said Hua Chunying, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, as quoted by Yonhap News.

Hua further mentioned that although Beijing and Tokyo have made some progress in finding and destroying the war-time Japanese chemical arsenal, progress was still lagging behind the plan set by the two countries, Yonhap News reported.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry reported earlier on Monday that the two countries have already destroyed an estimated 330,000 pieces of chemical weapons. According to the Convention on the Banning of Chemical Weapons and the memorandum on the destruction of abandoned chemical weapons signed by China and Japan in 1999, Japan is obligated to provide all necessary funds, technology, expertise and facilities to purge all chemical weapons on Chinese territory, China Daily said.