Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

After N Korea Resolution Passes by Consensus, ICP Asks DPRK of Trump, Park's Shaman

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 15 -- Four country-specific resolutions, including one on North Korea / DPRK, were the subject of a no-action motion in the UN Third Committee on November 15.

Sixty nine countries either opposed or abstained on going forward, but 101 wanted to. The North Korea resolution was adopted by consensus - after which several countries said they didn't join consensus. Only at the UN.

   Afterward DPRK, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, held a press conference. Tweeted photo here. Inner City Press asked Deputy Permanent Representative Kim Inryong to expound on in three references to South Korea's “shaman” scandal which threatens to drive President Park (and perhaps her wannabe successor Ban Ki-moon) from power, and about the Trump effect. Periscope video here.

But the answers were by a “member of the delegation in from the capital” Kim Yong Ho, who said that Tomas Ojea Quintana could visit, but only as a law professor from Buenos Aires (Argentina, where he's from), not as a UN Special Rapporteur. It will be interesting to see if he actually goes.

While the speakers on the resolution were nearly all Permanent Representatives, US PR Samantha Power was not there. She is to receive an award - from a US government agency, tweeted here - later in the day.

Back on September 9 after North Korea conducted its nuclear test, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon scheduled a stakeout press encounter for noon; the UN noon briefing on all other topics was canceled. Ban, we noted, is coyly running for president of South Korea. (Now President Park's "shaman" scandal may be dashing that dream).

Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric, even as Ban read his statement, tried to catch the eye of the reporters he wanted to ask questions: what does Ban want the Security Council to do, does he feel disappointed at how little he's accomplished on this North Korea file in his ten years as SG?

How about Ban's (many) other failures? Given that the first meeting in the afternoon is on Western Sahara, a “frozen” conflict Ban turned hot through distracted sloppiness, Inner City Press asked quite audibly, “On Western Sahara, why do you want the UN to build a road for Morocco?” Ban did not answer. Vine here. Inner City Press scoop here.

But would Ban answer why he promoted his own son in law to top UN job in Kenya, without recusing himself?

The UN Security Coouncil was in South Sudan, and US President Obama and others in China for the G20 when North Korea conducted its most recent launch. On US Labor Day, with the Council in Ethiopia, a UN Security Council meeting was announced for September 6 at 11:30 am.

After being accompanied as now required by one of Ban Ki-moon's minders, click here, Inner City Press arrived at the UN Security Council stakeout at 11 am. The only Ambassador to make remarks, off UNTV, before the meeting was France's Francois Delattre, who said “ballistic launches by NorthKorea... are a grave challenge to the non-proliferation regime.” Vine here.

   After the consultations - and a UN noon briefing in which Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric once again refused to provide information about Ban's promotion of his own son in law to the top UN job in Kenya and even the costs of Ban's current two week junket - US Ambassador Samantha Power and her Japanese and South Korea counterpart spoke on UNTV.

   The two questions, pointed to by Power's spokesman, were pre-selected; there was no question from South Korean media.

Now does Ban Ki-moon's dream lie in tatters? Watch this site.

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Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.