On
N Korea Launch, As Japan
Announces UNSC Meeting
5 pm, US Mission Silent
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 12 – More than 24
hours after North Korea's
missile launch, and that
government calling it a
success, Japan's Mission to
the UN tweeted that it had
requested an urgent UN
Security Council meeting along
with South Korea and the
United States.
The
month's Council presidency,
Ukraine, confirmed that the
meeting would occur, on or
around 5 pm.
But the US
Mission's twitter feed(s) were
silent. A US-funded media in
Asia, then US-controlled Voice
of America in New York, pegged
the meeting for Monday
afternoon, the former citing a
US source at the UN.
So
how is the "new" US Mission
communicating? They have a
media email list, which they
used on February 10 for Nikki
Haley's statement on Salam
Fayyad. But it was not used for
this. They have an official twitter
feed, and an alternative one -
both silent.
Under
Samantha Power, the US Mission
was selective in how it doled
out information, and ignored
the UN's eviction and ongoing
restriction on the Press which
reports on UN corruption.
This should be changing, but
hasn't yet. Watch this site.
After North Korea
conducted its last
nuclear test, the UN Security
Council met on September 9 and
issued a Press Statement.
Inner City Press asked
South Korea's then-Ambassador
Oh Joon (who went on to
support Ban Ki-moon's failed
campaign for South Korea's
presidency) if the THAAD
deployment didn't in some
sense escalate things.
Pressed, Oh Joon said,
“China's nuclear deterrence
doesn't have anything to do
with this issue.”
Now on November 30 a new
resolution passed 15-0 (full
text on Scribd here), after
the US election, with the
Obama administration and US
Power and Mission in lame duck
status.
Both China and Russia spoke
against the deployment of the
THAAD system in South Korea.
But even the word wasn't
mentioned in the three
questions pre-picked by
Samantha Power's spokesman
(Reuters, Kyoto, KBS), much
less in the answers. More was
said of South Korean
Ambassador Oh Joon flying to
Korea tonight - to work on a
Ban Ki-moon presidential
campaign? Inner City Press
asked, but it was not answered
at the end.
Ban Ki-moon came to speak,
which he doesn't do on other
countries - essentially, video
for a run for President of
South Korea. US Samantha
Power, when she mentioned the
ban on monuments sales, cited
only Robert Mugabe and Laurent
Kabila, not those of other US
allies.
Afterward at the stakeout,
asked by KBS what chance these
new “statue” sanctions have of
stopping North Korea, Power
made dubious analogies to
sanctions not only on Iran but
also South Africa and Serbia.
It's a problem from hell,
including these unfettered
journalists who want to ask
non pre-picked questions...
But it'd be
“prohibiting member states
from buying North Korean made
statues. The DPRK has
developed a cottage industry
building statues in numerous
African states, mostly via the
Pyongyang-based Mansundae Art
Studio. Mansudae’s work can be
seen in Cambodia, Angola,
Benin, Chad, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Equatorial
Guinea, Ethiopia, and Togo.”
***
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