Above photo: Facebook.
And Participate in NPT Review Conference.
Key Highlights:
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First- and second-generation Korean atomic bomb victims will undertake a U.S. speaking tour from April 21 to May 3, visiting major cities
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Survivors will share their long-overlooked experiences and call for a U.S. apology and compensation for the 1945 atomic bombings
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“Victims exist, but no one takes responsibility” — testimonies highlight ongoing inter-generational suffering and struggle for redress more than 80 years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Organizers will invite global civil society to participate in the upcoming International People’s Tribunal on the 1945 Atomic Bombings (“A-Bomb Tribunal”), to be held in Seoul from November 13 to 15, 2026.
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A UN side event (April 30) and NGO presentation at the NPT Review Conference in New York (May 1) will address the issue of the long-overdue redress for Korean atomic bomb victims.
“We demand an official apology and compensation from the United States.” More than 80 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, much of the world has yet to hear about the more than 70,000 Korean victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings. The Korean survivors of the nuclear holocaust have not disappeared from history, nor have they remained silent. From April 21 to May 3, 2026, survivors from South Korea will embark on a nationwide speaking tour across major U.S. cities, culminating in the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Organized jointly by SPARK (Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea), the International Organizing Committee of the A-Bomb Tribunal, and atomic bomb victims from South Korea, the tour aims to raise international awareness of Korean atomic bomb victims and to call for accountability, including an official apology and reparations from the United States for the long-overlooked suffering and historical erasure of Korean survivors.
The delegation includes Shim Jin-tae, who survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima as a toddler in August 1945. Shim is one of the 23,000 Korean survivors who returned to Korea after the war. He has been at the forefront of the Korean atomic bomb victims’ movement for justice and historical recognition, serving as head of the Hapcheon branch of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association. Joining Shim will be second-generation atomic bomb survivor Han Jeongsun, president of the Second-Generation Sufferers Association in Hapcheon. Han represents thousands of second-generation victims born to Korean atomic bomb survivors after the war. Like their parents, many second-generation victims have suffered from radiation-related illnesses and social ostracization.
Shim, Han, and the rest of the Korean atomic bomb victims over generations have endured a “triple suffering”: Japan’s illegal colonial rule and forced mobilization of Koreans that trapped them in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the U.S. atomic bombings, and the ostracization and social discrimination in postwar Korean society. Despite these complex and tragic colonial and intergenerational legacies of nuclear violence, their experiences remain largely unrecognized both domestically and internationally. But Korean atomic bomb survivors have refused to remain silent. When governments have failed to recognize and compensate them, they have advocated for their rights and the rights of other victims of nuclear violence around the world, seeking to hold the perpetrators accountable.
“Victims exist, but no one takes responsibility,” said a Korean survivor. “More than 80 years after the atomic bombings, my war has not yet ended.”
The speakers will visit Seattle, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York, sharing firsthand testimonies about the enduring impacts of nuclear violence and their lifelong activism for redress and reparations.
During the speaking tour, the speakers and organizers will promote the upcoming International People’s Tribunal on the 1945 Atomic Bombings in Seoul from November 13 to 15, 2026. Supported by 36 partner organizations around the world, the A-Bomb Tribunal aims to establish the illegality of the U.S. atomic bombings in 1945, and to secure the basis for condemning all nuclear threats as illegal today. Leading legal scholars in the fields of human rights and international law from the United States, Korea, and elsewhere will serve as judges at the Tribunal, holding the United States responsible for the deployment of atomic bombs in 1945. The Tribunal will also seek reparatory justice for the Korean victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings. Both Shim Jin-tae and Han Jeongsun will serve as plaintiffs at the A-Bomb Tribunal in Seoul. Organizers are calling for broad participation and support from international civil society.
On April 30, the speakers and SPARK will host a side event, “Building Lasting Peace and Denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia,” during the NPT Review Conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, featuring the voices of Korean atomic bomb victims. On May 1, the delegation will deliver a statement during the conference plenary session to raise shared concerns from the survivor community and international civil society.
SPARK and Korean atomic bomb survivors are embarking on this critical initiative at the upcoming NPT Review Conference amid ongoing global concerns over nuclear proliferation and the erosion of U.S.–Russia arms control frameworks, the increasing military pressure by nuclear-armed states, and their failure to fulfill disarmament obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
SPARK also seeks to emphasize that the Korean Peninsula has become a center of global nuclear tensions. The delegation will argue that extended deterrence policies and military alliances under the U.S. umbrella contribute to nuclear proliferation risks. “Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can serve as a starting point for global nuclear disarmament,” organizers stressed. SPARK will make a case for a peace treaty on the Korean Peninsula and a non-aggression agreement between the United States and North Korea as pathways toward denuclearization.
Through this U.S. speaking tour and engagement at the NPT Review Conference, organizers hope to amplify international awareness, build solidarity, and mobilize global support to prevent the recurrence of nuclear catastrophe.
SPARK (Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea) is a South Korea-based civil society organization dedicated to peace, denuclearization, and reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Founded in 1994, SPARK has actively participated in international disarmament forums, including the NPT and Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) processes, and works in solidarity with atomic bomb victims to advance justice and accountability.
