Japan: Vietnamese people are still missing in the March 11 disaster

Japan has just officially confirmed that 24 foreigners were killed in the double 11/3 northeast disaster in the country, while dozens of other foreigners were missing - including Vietnamese.

Serious difficulties continue to surround disaster areas as well as nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture (Artwork).

In a statement released yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan listed dead foreigners discovered so far, including nationalities of China, Canada, South Korea, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United States.

Missing foreigners include citizens of Vietnam, China, Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia. According to the announcement, Japanese police have asked families of those not on the list of missing persons to send DNA samples through diplomatic missions in Tokyo to identify the body.

As of May 15, the total number of people killed in earthquake / tsunami on March 11 in Japan is 15,057 and there are still more than 9,100 people missing.

The double disaster has led to a serious nuclear crisis that Japan is still trying to cope with. Yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced it would close the reactors at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant before the end of the year , while authorities acknowledged the March disaster that damaged the power plant. more harm than originally thought.

The Japanese leader said the schedule to bring damaged nuclear reactors into cold-close conditions would not change. Mr. Kan stressed that it would take 6 to 9 months. This schedule is in line with a plan of Tokyo electricity company announced a month ago.

But it was clear that the reactors were more damaged than previously thought. The No.1 reactor is now acknowledged to have melted. Japanese experts said the fuel rods inside the reactor were exposed to air and melted. However, the fuel has fallen to the bottom of the reservoir, helping the reactor not fall into complete melting.

Analysts say that only the nuclear crisis has caused Japan to lose $ 50-100 billion . In addition, Japan needs to calculate how to pay a large sum of money equivalent to rebuild hundreds of coastal communities swept away by tsunamis and many other cities suffer significant losses by earthquakes. Some economists expect Japan to spend an additional $ 200 billion for reconstruction work.