UNITED NATIONS, May 3, updated May 4 -- When Hillary Clinton came to speak to or at the UN press corps on Monday afternoon, the questions were pre-selected and North Korea was not mentioned. The first two questions were given to CBS and the Wall Street Journal, and both were on Iran.
The third and it seemed last concerned the US decision to disclose the number of its weapons. By sheet persistence a UN correspondent from South Asia got a question in about India, Pakistan and Israel. But no mention of North Korea. (In full disclosure, Inner City Press said "North Korea" during each lull, each time louder.)
What explains this seeming blindspot? Why focus so much on Iran, calling it a threat to cross the "red line" to nuclear weapons status, when North Korea is already over the line? On the first day of the NPT Review Conference, Kim Jong-Il was visiting China.
With Hillary Clinton not addressing North Korea, Inner City Press asked Gareth Evans about it. He said the DPRK has somewhere around 10 weapons, and it is a major concern. A reporter for Iranian media shouted two questions to him about Israel's weapons. Evans scoffed at the second question and turned away. He told a persistent reporter - not this one -- that he had no business cards.
As Hillard Clinton spoke, her counterpart from Indonesia walked by, with an entourage of merely three. Hillary's posse was much larger, similar to that of Ahmadinejad or later in the day, the EU's Lady Ashton. Snarks pegged her outfit as something for last week's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and even suggested she could be replaced by David Miliband when Gordon Brown's Labor loses. Miliband keeps Tweeting as if Gordo's gonna win.
The US State Department's tweets, meanwhile, contained a blatant error on Monday. It was announced that Hillary met with Nigeria's foreign minister, but the former ousted one was named.
StateDept #SecClinton just held a bilat with Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe in New York. #Nigeria
Actually this began in Hillary's Daily Schedule:
1:20 p.m. Secretary Clinton holds a Bilateral Meeting with Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe, at the TIAA CREFF Building.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
But Maduekwe, whose melt down at the UN Inner City Press covered, is no longer the foreign minister of Nigeria. Nor, last week, did the US Mission to the UN answer a single one of the questions Inner City Press submitted, about Congo and the Sudan -- a topic on which Hillary says she's "disappointed." Well, we're disappointed too.
Note to Foggy Bottom: there's a new foreign minister of Nigeria, Odein Ajumogobia, and he'll be appearing at Nigeria House on Second Avenue on Wednesday. Watch this site.
Update of May 3, 6:50 p.m. - Zimbabwe's Ambassador, at a Russian reception Monday evening celebrating the end of World War II, told Inner City Press that the event for Nigeria's new foreign minister has been canceled. The plot thickens...
And see, www.innercitypress.com/npt1hillary050310.html
