Malcorra Quits As Argentina FM to Move To Spain, Echo of CAR Retaliation & Briber Ng Lap Seng Award

By Matthew Russell Lee, New Exclusive Series

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 – Susana Malcorra has resigned as foreign minister of Argentina, saying that after years she wanted to rejoin her family in Madrid, Spain. The coverage so far, while alluding to connections to scandals in Brazil, barely mention Malcorra's role at least two scandals at the UN while she was chief of staff to Ban Ki-moon. Malcorra was deeply involved in the retaliatory firing of Anders Kompass after he blew the whistle on peacekeepers' sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic (Inner City Press asked Malcorra about it, here). And Malcorra accepted an award from indicted Macau businessman Ng Lap Seng, set for a UN bribery trail in June. We'll have more on this. As one Ban Ki-moon associate quits, another tries to move up, amid inquiries to Inner City Press from South Korea. Ban's ambition to be president of South Korea ended amid the indictment of his brother and nephew for UN-related corruption; Ban critic Moon Jae-in won the post. Now Moon Jae-in has named Kyung-wha Kang, who worked for and with Ban at the UN and physically witnessed the Ban's Department of Public Information's eviction of Inner City Press, as his nominee for foreign minister. There is the problem of her daughter's false address / American citizenship; there is also, many say, the lack of direct experience on the North Korea issue. As if to make up for it, Kang has now called both for sanctions and aid. What does she, a long time UN official, think of the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization's work with North Korea on a patent for sodium cyanide? She should say. This question, and that of Kang as RoK FM, were among those Inner City Press wanted to asked North Korean Deputy Ambassador Kim In Ryong at his May 26 press conference - but he left without taking any questions, Periscope here. While Kang was more reasonable than Ban - for example months after the eviction telling Inner City Press, "There must be a process" (there still isn't) - are her policy views different? On May 23, Inner City Press asked the UN about her status, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: I'd asked you yesterday about Kyung-wha Kang.  And I wanted to ask you, what's her… she had said to… to the South Korean press that she had to wind up a few things in New York before going for, I guess, a confirmation hearing.  What's her status with the UN?  Did she resign?

Spokesman:  Yeah, she handed in her resignation letter today to the Secretary-General, effective tomorrow.  So, she will… my understanding is she will travel to Korea very soon.  But, as of tomorrow, she will no longer be employed by the United Nations.  So, when she arrives in Korea, she will be free and clear of her contractual obligations or of any contractual link to the United Nations.
Inner City Press:  And will that post be… is a recruitment to begin for that post…

Spokesman:  We're still getting over the shock of her leaving, and then I'm sure…

Inner City Press:  There's no… there's no agreement to… to return if… I mean…

Spokesman:  She's going… she's handed in her resignation.  It's not a resignation with an asterisk that says I can come back so… she's cut the ties with the mothership, unfortunately.   

  Here is a photo of her meeting with Saudi Arabia's mission to the UN, in the midst of the ongoing bombing of Yemen; she said little, at least publicly. She sat in, along with Kim Won-soo now seeking the top stop at the IAEA, on Ban's meeting with South Korean politicians at the UN while Ban was preparing his abortive run for President. What was Kyung-wha Kang's role in the UN OCHA "functional review" Inner City Press exclusively reported on, and after which she (temporarily) resigned? What if anything did she know about Ban's relatives using the name of the UN to try to sell real estate in Viet Nam? On May 22 Inner City Press asked Ban's holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: there are many people congratulating Ms. Kyung-wha Kang. she was asked, and she said that she's got the appointment because based on knowledge she's gained while at the UN, et cetera. She was questioned at JFK Airport by South Korean media.  And so the question has arisen.  There's staff regulations and rules that say whatever knowledge you gain while working for the UN, you cannot deploy at a Government.  So, given that she used this very word, I just wanted to know, how does it work at the UN to ensure… I know that Ms. [Susana] Malcorra, there was something similar, but is there guidance from the Secretariat to say what can and cannot be used when you go immediately from the Secretariat to a Government?

Spokesman:  I think… first of all, I think I would add my congratulations to her.  Second of all, I have no doubt that Ms. Kang will live up to the highest ethical standards as it pertains to the issues you raise.  Third, I think there is a difference between experience and knowledge.  And I think the way the rules are written, it's about using specific knowledge of issue… of things as opposed to experience one gains over one's professional life. 

  The reliably craven pro-Ban Korea Times said Moon Jae-in should make Ban a "pleni-potentiary" envoy - but why? Even the Korea Times admits Ban accomplished little at the UN except "rubbing shoulders;" they call Ban's cut-short campaign against Moon Jae-in "half-baked." They neglect to say it failed amid the indictment of Ban's brother and nephew for using the UN and Ban to try to sell real estate in Vietnam. This should disqualify Ban from any envoy position too. Even at a UN event on May 11 the talk was of how low Ban brought the UN; ironically the event was one that Ban's censorship of Press coverage of his corruption made it impossible for Inner City Press to attend substantive parts of. This must be addressed. So what of Ban's long time aide Kim Won-soo, recently replaced in the UN Disarmament post Ban gave him? Sources complain to Inner City Press they've seen Kim Won-soo using the access that UN post gave him to try to run for Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Ahmet Üzümcü was elected back in 2009. The OPCW's Executive Council meets October 10-13, 2017. We'll have more on that - and this, that while Ban may be immune in the two UN bribery cases in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, he may not be in South Korea. Ban's use of his UN pedigree to promote himself, even after his relatives used the UN to try to sell real estate, continues - now in stealth, he thinks. Claiming to be a scapegoat, even after he engaged in censorship to cover up his relatives' and officials' links to the two ongoing UN-related corruption cases still pending in the US District Court for the Southern District of NY, Ban on April 25 told at the Kennedy School, "Most of the UN staff address me like ‘SG’ instead of Secretary-General because it is too long. At the same time, ‘SG’ stands for ‘scapegoat.’ Whatever goes wrong, that’s all the United Nations Secretary-General’s fault." Well, the corruption and censorship were and are. And Ban's censor in chief Cristina Gallach, even no longer at the UN, is re-tweeting her old Ban-like speech, perhaps hoping for a second bite at the apple. We'll have more on this. Ban's attempt to run for the presidency of South Korea flamed out in three weeks. But now, only after Ahn Cheol-soo said Ban might become a "special diplomatic envoy," Ban's supporters have said they will vote for Ahn Cheol-soo. Quid pro quo, at least slightly more transparent than the stealth way Ban was unwisely put atop the UN for ten years, and brought it to its low position, including on Yemen, late and weak action on the Internet cut in Cameroon and continued restrictions on the Press even in UN Headquarters.  (Meanwhile, in South Korea VP Mike Pence is visiting the DMZ from a wrongly described "UN" joint base: more on this to follow.) For Ban, an attempt is made to characterize as "fake news" the Press' factual reporting on the indictment by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York of Ban's brother Ban Ki-sang and nephew Dennis Bahn. The Korea Times "reports" that "Fake news was one of the reasons former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dropped his presidential bid. Even before his return home from New York in January after wrapping up his 10-year service at the U.N., corruption allegations were leveled against members of his family. Ban dismissed them as part of a fake news campaign intended to tarnish his image." Ban and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric didn't just "dismiss" the use of the UN by Ban Ki-sang in Vietnam and Ban Ki-ho in Myanmar - they evicted without any hearing the Press which uncovered them, and Dujarric keeps it restricted to this day, most recently on April 13 calling "harassment" the Press' criticism of UN officials' performance. Ban Ki-moon brought the UN low on press freedom and it has yet to rehabilitate itself.