Groups representing Korean and Japanese victims of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have urged six countries involved in negotiations to scrap North Korea's nuclear weapons to ratify the UN treaty banning nuclear weapons.  

Japan’s Kyodo News said on Friday that a joint statement issued by the groups was delivered to the governments of the two Koreas, Japan, the U.S., China and Russia on Wednesday.

In the statement, the groups argued that North Korea's nuclear weapons program is the biggest pending issue concerning peace in Northeast Asia. They said the countries should ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons(TPNW) and take leading roles in creating a world without nuclear weapons. 

They also called on the governments of South Korea and Japan to launch a joint investigation into the losses caused by the atomic bombings and compensate the victims. 

Ratified by 50 countries last month, the treaty is scheduled to take effect in January.