UN
Allows Censorship by North Korea
of Art Exhibit, Then Covers It
Up
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive, video
here
UNITED NATIONS,
August 4 – An art exhibit that
opened in the UN Delegates
Entrance on Friday night
promised to have four
paintings by North Korean
artists, without the approval
of their government, set
for further sanctions the
next day. But when Inner City
Press attended the show, all
four paintings were gone and
pages 49 through 52 had been
ripped out of the show program
it picked up.
The
co-host with Vanuatu of the
exhibition, who was quoted
in the July 31 New York Post
that “the initiative is under
the table — very low key,”
told Inner City Press
exclusively on August 4 that
the four paintings had been
removed and that at some later
date a single approved work
would be submitted by the
government of North Korea --
the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea, in UNese.
Photo at exhibit in UN, Aug 4, 2017,
(c) MR Lee, ICP
The recent history of art
shows in the UN is full of
controversy. The Macau-based
businessman Ng Lap Seng,
convicted on July 27 of six
counts involving bribery of
the UN, funded a one-man show
that was deemed improper by a
subsequent UN audit put online
by Inner City Press, here.
(The official who allowed that
show without vetting, Cristina
Gallach, later evicted
Inner City Press from the UN,
in which it remains restricted).
At
the August 4 event, complete
with red and white wine and
lamp chops, former US
Ambassador to the UN Samantha
Power's spokesman Kurtis
Cooper was present, although
it was not clear in what
capacity. Periscope video
here. UN Security
maintained a perimeter around
the event, and UN staff
managed and provided the
sound. As such, the UN oversaw
censorship, now as then. And
this as a US-sponsored
resolution to impose further
sanctions on North Korea is set
for a vote on August 5 at 3 pm,
as cravenly described
by an anonymous “Security
Council diplomat” whom the New
York Times and Reuters left
unnamed “according to
protocol,” as the New York
Times put it. This is how the
UN works - or doesn't.
***
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