Japanese Experts to Aid Recovery of Abandoned World War II-Era Chemical Shells in China

Japan plans to send another team of experts to China next month to help recover Japanese World War II-era abandoned chemical weapons, Japanese officials said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 23).

The 32-member team is set to travel to the northeastern city of Ningan, Kyodo News Service reported. China estimates that about 700 chemical munitions, some of them carrying mustard agent, remain in the area.

The Japanese team will assist Chinese experts in excavating the munitions and transporting them to a temporary storage facility. In addition, as many as 1,000 people are expected top be evacuated from an area within a 150-mile radius of the site, officials said.

The Japanese Cabinet Office has to date retrieved 11,200 abandoned munitions in the Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang and Jiangsu. The Japanese Foreign Ministry has conducted additional recovery efforts (Kyodo News Service/BBC Monitoring International, Aug. 26).

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