By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May
20 -- The Democratic
People's
Republic of
Korea and
sanctions on
it were behind
closed doors
the topics of
a UN Security
Council
meeting on May
20. Afterward
sanctions
committee
chair Sylvie
Lucas of
Luxembourg
emerged to
provide a
careful
summary to the
press.
She said there
was discussion
of
"implementation
assistance
notices" and
of the ship
stopped in
Panama. Some
members
brought up
human rights
-- as an
indication of
the DPRK's
attitude toward
its obligations,
she hastened
to add.
Inner City
Press asked
Lucas when
other members
states might
get briefed --
June -- and if
there was any
further discussion
of luxury
goods and,
yes, Dennis
Rodman.
After Dennis
Rodman's last
strip to North
Korea, bearing
as gifts for
Kim Jong-un a
mink coat,
Jameson and his own
brand of vodka,
on January 24
Inner City
Press asked Lucas
if this level
of gift was
too low for
consideration
by the
committee. Video here and embedded below.
No,
Lucas said,
"this is not
too low." She
said that
"luxury goods
are on the
sanctions
list, there
are cases
where luxury
cases have
been stopped
and those
cases have
been referred
to the
committee...
The feeling of
the Council is
that with
DPRK, if you
have an
embargo on
luxury goods
this is going
to hurt the
leading
parties."
(The gaggle
outside the
Committee
meeting was on
the record,
with digital
audio
recorders and
now as before,
small
cameras.)
She
said the
Rodman case
had not arisen
in the closed
door January
24 meeting of
the committee,
which focused
on an
"incident
report" about
the ship from
Cuba to North
Korea stopped
in Panama, and
about
scheduling.
(Click here
for Inner City
Press' report
from earlier
about the
Democratic
People
Republic of
Korea
Ambassador Sin
Son Ho's UN
press
conference, at
which Inner
City Press
asked about
Ban Ki-moon's
call to South
Korea's
president,
which the UN
has refused to
read-out.)
But if
reports are
true that the
Obama
administration,
miffed at
Rodman's
visits, is
investigating
his gifts to
Kim Jong-un,
the US is a
leading member
of the UN's
sanctions
committee. So
soon the US
will either
put up or shut
up. Would it
be a slam
dunk? Who
knows. But here's
Exhibit A, on
Twitter.
Watch this
site.
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