Japan excavate 461 chemical weapons

Japanese officials have recovered 461 chemical weapons abandoned during the past war in China’s Guandong province in a recent excavation project, an official said today.

The chemical weapons were excavated near the Zhujiang river in the city of Guangzhou city, Guandong province, between November 22, 2006, and yesterday, said Japan’s Cabinet Office official Yoshinobu Abe.

A group of about 30 Japanese government officials and private sector experts joined the latest excavation project, which was conducted under the “full cooperation from the Chinese government,” Abe said.

A 1997 international convention requires Japan to remove thousands of chemical weapons it abandoned in China by 2007, but Tokyo has asked for a five-year extension. Japan has removed 37,000 chemical weapons, but at least 700,000 are still believed to remain in China.

Japan launched its first excavation in the city in 2005, after three Chinese people were sickened in Guangzhou by inhaling poison gas from what were believed from chemical weapons abandoned by the former Japanese military in June 2005, Abe said.

The three Chinese involved were treated in hospital in the poisoning but later left hospital after recovering their health, Abe said.