On
DPRK Test, Ban
Says He Talks
With All
Parties, But
Admits Not N.
Korea
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 12 –
Alongside the
nuclear test
in North
Korea,
Monday evening
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
appeared at
the
Council on
Foreign
Relations
on Park Avenue
in New York.
Ban
said he had
two main
issues: Syria
and climate
change. He
said the
North Korea,
or the
Democratic
Peoples
Republic of
Korea as he
called
it, could be
asked about
afterward
along with
Mali,
Afghanistan
and
the Democratic
Republic of
Congo (on
which no
questions at
all were
selected at
CFR).
When
moderator
Christiane
Amanpour asked
him who he
speaks to in
North
Korea, Ban
admitted: no
one. He said
that the North
Koreans don't
talk on the
phone with
anyone
outside.
But what then
was that smart
phone Kim
Jong-un was
photographed
with? And what
about Bill
Richardson?
Google?
The
CFR session
ended with a
question from
the chair of
Ban's own
Democracy
Fund, after
Ban was
allowed to
dodge a
question about
the
UN's failure
in Sri Lanka.
(Inner City
Press was
there; no
questions
on DR Congo or
Sudan were
allowed, only
CFR
dues-paying
members.)
Late
Monday night,
New York time,
news
circulated
first on
Twitter about
the nuclear
test. By
11 pm some
knew of a
Security
Council
meeting
set for 9 am
on Tuesday.
The
South Korean
mission, which
holds the
Security
Council
presidency for
February, sent
out an e-mail
about the
meeting and
that their
foreign
minister,
Ban's previous
post, would
speak to the
press at the
Council
takeout after
that meeting.
(Inner City
Press will
cover the
meeting and
stakeout, live.)
But
even before
that
announcement,
Ban Ki-moon
put out a statement
calling North
Korea's
defiance
“deplorable”
and saying
that he
“remains in
close contact
with all
concerned
parties.”
So
North Korea
itself is NOT
a “concerned
party”?
Because Ban
had
just admitted
he is not any
any contact,
much less
close contact,
with North
Korea. Should
a diplomat be
found who IS
in such
contact?
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
At
CFR Ban said
he'll be in
Washington
February 13
and 14. Will
he
still go, and
if so, what
will his
talking points
be? Will the
DRC,
where the UN
actually has a
$1 billion a
year
peacekeeping
mission,
be shunted out
of even the
read-out
“highlights,”
as it was from
Ban's
doling of
lunch and
quotes to
his UN
Censorship
Alliance, UNCA,
on February 7?
Inner
City Press on
behalf of the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
FUNCA, asked
for a
transcript and
was told no.
DRC was
discussed but
some was off
the record;
apparently
only UNCA's
13 opaque
apostles
are trusted by
Ban. We'll
see.
, 
