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By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 – On the North Korea - US talks, US President Donald Trump on May 10 tweeted "The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th." The odds now change daily, and the UN remains marginal at best. Inner City Press previously asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric if it would play any role - no answer - and on May 9 asked him if the UN had played any role at all in the release of the three American hostages by North Korea earlier in the day. No, Dujarric said, before laughing after a Press question about hindered humanitarian aid and calling Inner City Press "self-centered." Video here. On May 16, North Korea's first vice minister for foreign affairs Kim Kye Gwan issued a statement further calling the talks into question. China has, on cue, emerged as a broker or adviser that the two should meet halfway. On May 15, Kim's state media KCNA cited the joint US - South Korea military exercised somewhat absurdly called Max Thunder as an “exercise targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea, is a flagrant challenge to the Panmunjom Declaration and an intentional military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean Peninsula.The United States will also have to undertake careful deliberations about the fate of the planned North Korea-U.S. summit in light of this provocative military ruckus jointly conducted with the South Korean authorities.” At the UN Security Council stakeout on the afternoon of May 15, Sweden's Permanent Representative Olof B. Skoog said had yet to hear of this development; the Dutch chair of the Council's North Korea 1718 sanctions committee went into the Council's meetings, on Somalia and Abyei, without stopping to spek with the press. Back on May 12, KCNA announced that North Korea's "Nuclear Weapon Institute and other concerned institutions are taking technical measures for dismantling the northern nuclear test ground ... in order to ensure transparency of discontinuance of the nuclear test." Media from five countries - including the UK but not Japan - were invited. Japan's right wing Sankei Shimbun, which routinely misses North Korea news at the UN in favor of fluff about Kanye West and its reporter Mayu Uetsuka's laundry and jogging in the park, snarked that "The dismantling of the nuclear test site may just be another theatrical performance to the outside world... It seems that North Korea wants foreign currency under the premise of inviting foreign media." But now an expert opines that "only four media (two US TV, one ROK TV, one ROK text) 100% confirmed going to North Korea to observe demolition of Pyungye-ri. Many media invited have had invites rescinded with no real reason given." So does Sankei stand by its statement this is all about getting foreign currency? Trump back on May 8 while withdrawing from the Iran Deal announced that Mike Pompeo was on his way to North Korea and would be there in an hour's time. Trump said he was hopeful the US hostages would be released and that withdrawal from the Iran Deal would make America safer. Meanwhile Kim Jong Un has flown to the Chinese city of Dalian and met Xi Jiping. Along with a seaside walk, the talk was of synchronized and mutual steps with the US, probably not what Trump wants to hear. South Korea's Yonhap and Chosun have both reported the talks will take place in Singapore in the June, most probably the third week in June. It is noted that Trump often reverses course - it could be earlier, in the DMZ in Panmunjom, or even not at all, depending on how the meeting is pre-spun. Either way, it seems the UN remains on the sidelines, despite intermittent claims of relevance from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his yet to be seen new head of the Department of Political Affairs. Inner City Press, which previously shared a UN office with Chosun Ilbo prior to being evicted for exposing the UN's bribery by Ng Lap Seng and now Patrick Ho, was told she'd start on May 1. Also as the Trump - Kim talks approach, the constellation of those opposing or seeking to undercut them extends from self-styled diplomatic experts in Washington to decadent and ill-informed pro-Abe Japanese scribes in New York. The former include politicians who while first claiming diplomacy was being killed now say it it moving too fast. The latter published, in Sankei Shimbun alone, two separate stories about the May 3 event at the UN in which as Inner City Press reported amid other news a professor from Tufts University said Japan's colonial rule of Korea was better than that of the Kims. Of this, Sankei's Mayu Uetsuka who was not even there wrote that “Mr. Kaichiro Iizuka (41), the eldest son of Mr. Yaeko Taguchi (62) = Same (22) =, said the mother was one year old when she was kidnapped, "I have no memory of touching my mother ". While attention is being paid to nuclear and missile issues, he said, 'Do not forget the abduction issue that human beings are being threatened, human lives should not be lighter than nuclear weapons and missiles.'” Meanwhile the same Uetsuka, unconcerned with human lives other than her own, bragged about renting an apartment on the Upper West Side there is no washing machine in the room. At first I was looking for a property with "washing machine" at the rental site, but I could not find it in the desired area in the budget. New York has many old buildings, so there are no washing machines only about 30% of the property. Piping around the water is not in place, it is also difficult to purchase and install a washing machine yourself. There is a laundry room in the building and it will be shared with neighbors. From friends, I heard that there are some Americans who are washing shoes and they snatch, but they will have to get used to it. In the life of the United States, insensitive dullness which does not care a little is trained. The room I live in is also puzzled by the appearance of the next apartment from the window, but it gradually ceased to matter. Let's start a jog at Central Park for a diet.” No, it's time to be replaced, putting out for old reports, throwing away real information for a self-promoting bartender typist, on May 15 typing slews of quotes about Somalia certain not to be used: Kevin Pinner, claiming he “named products, generated slogans and ideas for marketing campaigns” for Chinavision. Oh for the days of Jun Kurosawa, who at least pursued the attempted censorship of Mr Tatsuya Kato. These days Pinner sits elsewhere in the bullpen, ordered to type information that Sankei will never publish; Mayu Uetsuka most recently tried to promote New York ads for Hitachi, Panasonic, Shimizu Corporation, and Daikin Industries. We will have more on this.

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