President Lee Jae Myung has expressed his condolences over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II and vowed to preserve peace to prevent any such wartime horrors from happening again. 

Lee issued the message in a post on social media on Tuesday, the eve of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings.

Reflecting on the events of August 6 and 9, 1945, Lee said the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan claimed countless lives in an instant, and he expressed his sympathy for the victims and their families.

The president said many Koreans residing in Japan also fell victim to the bombings.

Lee said a special law to support the Korean victims was enacted in 2017 but that much remains to be done, vowing the government’s continued efforts to heal the scars from the bombings.