North
Korean
Conference
Shrouded in
Mystery, UN's
Non-Role, Ban
Visit
By
Matthew
Russell
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 9 -- For
three days
since a North
Korean
delegation
including
nuclear envoy
Ri Yong-ho
arrived in New
York, media
have
thronged
outside the
Millennium
Hotel on 44th
Street across
from the
UN, filming
anyone who
went in or
out.
On
March 7 there
was Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon; on
March 8, Henry
Kissinger,
this
time without
attendant
protesters
chanting "war
criminal."
Finally
on March 9
the Press was
invited in, to
a 3:30 pm
briefing on
the hotel's
second
floor.
The problem,
however, is
that at the
very beginning
of the
press
conference
moderator
Christoph
Pohlmann of
the Friedrich
Ebert
Stifgung
Foundation
announced "we
are not giving
you any
specific
details of
either the
contents or
the
participants
of the
conference, in
order not to
endanger the
process of
trust-building."
One wag
muttered, why
are we here
then?
Of
the four other
panelists one,
Haeng Woo Lee
of the
National
Association of
Korean
Americans,
never spoke.
Inner
City Press
asked the
panelists
about a
statement in
the press
release by
Syracuse
University's
Maxwell
School, that
"the United
Nations
participated,"
and
specifically
asked if
having former
South
Korean foreign
minister Ban
Ki-moon as
Secretary
General helped
or
didn't help
the process,
or had no
impact at all,
as on so many
other
issues.
Moderator
Christoph
Pohlmann
handled the
question
himself:
"That's
an
easy question,
because we
can't answer
it. I can;t
comment on who
represented
the UN at the
meeting, but I
think everyone
is aware of
the role or
the non-role
the UN has in
the Korea
issue, and I
think
we don’t need
to elaborate
on that. But
just to make
it clear, a
few days ago
there was some
speculation
that Ban Ki
moon had
attended
our meeting
because he
entered the
hotel. It’s
not true. Just
to
make that
clear. He had
another
meeting in
that hotel. He
enters the
building
probably on a
daily basis
because it's
part of the UN
compound."
While
DC-1 and DC-2
are part of
the UN, the
Millenniun
Hotel is
different.
What WAS Ban
Ki-moon doing
there?
Pohlmann
wouldn't even
confirm the
participation
of Ri Yong-ho.
So who were
those masked
men?
With
all the
journalistic
firepower
directed at
this
non-event,
there are sure
to be some
detailed
analyses
forthcoming,
particularly
after a March
10 press
conference
that couldn't
help but be
more
informative.
Watch this
site.
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