The
“Women Cross
DMZ” March
Wrote to Ban
Without
Answer, Set to
March May 24
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
24 -- During
Ban Ki-moon's
eight years as
UN Secretary
General, have
relations
between North
and South
Korea gotten
better?
Ban
was previously
foreign
minister of
South Korea;
most recently
he named his
long time
senior adviser
Kim Won-soo as
head of UN
Disarmament,
with its North
Korea
portfolio.” On
April 24,
Inner City
Press ran to
the UN's noon
briefing and asked Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric:
Inner
City Press:
there's a
press
conference
that was just…
still taking
place, I
believe, by
this group
called Women
Cross DMZ, and
added about an
upcoming march
they intend to
go from North
to South
Korea, and
they said they
wrote to Ban
Ki-moon asking
for his
response and
they got a
response from
the mission of
South Korea
which they
somehow
attributed to
him, but did
he receive a
letter from
this
group?
What does he
think of the
march?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
I will check
if they
received the
letter.
By day's end,
nothing. But
at the press
conference for
Women Crossing
DMZ, photo
here,
Hyung-Kyung
Chung said
clearly that
the group has
written to Ban
Ki-moon but
never got any
response. She
said that the
South Korean
mission to the
UN,
“Ambassador
Lim” (Kim?)
had responded,
and even
apologized for
not being able
to attend the
press
conference, at
the Baha'i
International
center across
48th Street
from the UN.
Though the
press
conference was
NOT in the UN,
one of the
questioners
said that
“here in the
UN” North
Korea is
called as bad
as Nazi
Germany and
asked why the
march's
organizers
weren't
talking about
that.
Gloria
Steinem,
Honorary
Co-Chair of
the march,
asked for the
microphone to
answer.
“That's
such a bananas
question,”
Steinem said.
“Did you say
to Reagan when
he said,
'Mister
Khrushchev
[sic], tear
down this
wall,' why
aren't you
talking about
Siberia and
human rights?”
Continuing the
analogy,
Steinem said
of Ronald
Reagan, “He
was talking
about tearing
down a wall.
We are talking
about taking
down a wall.
There are sins
on every side.
For instance,
left-over in
Vietnam, Agent
Orange is
still buried.”
Inner City
Press had
wanted to ask
a question,
but had to
leave to get
to the UN noon
briefing to
ask about the
group's letter
to Ban
Ki-moon. We
still don't
have an
answer.
One reason the
UN or at least
the office of
Ban and his
officials like
Herve Ladsous
of UN
Peacekeeping
feel they
don't have to
answer is that
the supposed
“UN
Correspondents
Association,”
far from
pushing for
press rights,
in fact is willing
to try to get
independent
media thrown
out of the UN.
Click here for
an example.
The organizers
of
WomenCrossDMZ
did an event
in UNCA - a
mistake - and
on April 24
called it an
event “with
the UN press
corps,” also
inaccurate.
We'll have
more on all
this.
, 
