By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 24 -- After Dennis Rodman's recent trip to North Korea, bearing as gifts for Kim Jong-un a mink coat, Jameson and his own brand of vodka, on January 24 Inner City Press asked the UN's DPRK Sanctions committee chair Sylvie Lucas of Luxembourg if this level of gift was too low for consideration by the committee. Video here.
No, Lucas said, "this is not too low." She said that "luxury goods are on the sanctions list, there are cases where luxury cases have been stopped and those cases have been referred to the committee... The feeling of the Council is that with DPRK, if you have an embargo on luxury goods this is going to hurt the leading parties."
She said the Rodman case had not arisen in the closed door January 24 meeting of the committee, which focused on an "incident report" about the ship from Cuba to North Korea stopped in Panama, and about scheduling.
(Click here for Inner City Press' report from earlier today about the Democratic People Republic of Korea Ambassador Sin Son Ho's UN press conference, at which Inner City Press asked about Ban Ki-moon's call to South Korea's president, which the UN has refused to read-out.)
But if reports are true that the Obama administration, miffed at Rodman's visits, is investigating his gifts to Kim Jong-un, the US is a leading member of the UN's sanctions committee. So soon the US will either put up or shut up. Would it be a slam dunk? Who knows. But here's Exhibit A, on Twitter. Watch this site.
