June 12 – Before the North Korea - US summit, US President Donald Trump on June 1 said, "you people are going to have to travel because you'll be in Singapore on June 12th." And on that day, after a 38 minute tete a tete (with interpreters) and wider meetings and a lunch, Trump held up the four point document and after that took questions. He said the war games will not be resumed in North Korea complies, calling them provocative and expensive, with bombers flying to South Korea from Guam. He said that "at the appropriate time" he'll go to Pyongyang, he looks forward to it. Japanese reporter asked about abductions, adding, when will Trump do interview with Japanese TV? Trump said abductions will be worked on, it's not in the document. Trump said that to verify - the word not in the document - there'll be a lot of people there. There was no mention of the UN or IAEA. On June 11 in New York with the UN effectively marginalized, its Secretary General Antonio Guterres wanly offered, "Relevant parts of the United Nations system stand ready to support this process. The International Atomic Energy Agency has a mandate to apply safeguards on all nuclear material in peaceful use, including all material removed from military programs." He took three pre-picked questions but has not answered on the IAEA portion of the UN system's cover up of sexual harassment charges under his watch. As Inner City Press hasexclusively reported: "An abrupt resignation at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, of Tero Varjoranta, was by some like Reuters linked to Trump's pull out from the Iran JCPOA deal. Varjoranta was linked to the JCPOA - but his resignation, multiple whistleblowers tell Inner City Press, was more tied to a sexualharassment incident witnessed by many staff. Inner City Press' sources, understandably afraid of retaliation in Guterres' UN (which continues to restrict Inner CityPress) now exclusively provide Inner City Press: it was a retreat held in October 2017 by one division within the Department of Safeguards, see below. On May 23, before the UN barred Inner City Press from the premises from 7-7:55 pm then had it escorted out, Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here." More here.At the UN on June 5, Inner City Press asked the chair of the UN's North Korea Sanctions Committee, Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom, how many sanctions exemptions have been given for the talks. After not answering this question the last few times Inner City Press asked, on June 5 he said, "One," a blanket exemption. Inner City Press followed up, asking if and when North Korea will provide information like the names of those traveling: before the 12th or after the 12? Van Oosterom, walking away, said it's an open exemption. UN video here. What does this say about sanctions? Trump on May 29 tweeted, "Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York." On May 30 just before 7 pm Kim Yong Chol and security, as well as at least one staffer from the US Mission to the UN, exited the Millennium Hilton hotel on 44th Street across from the UN and piled into a series of black cars, pursued by media. See 2 minutes and 20 seconds of Inner City Press' Periscope feed, here. They drove to 330 East 38th Street, the Corinthian Condominium where many war crimes linked diplomats have lived and the US leases a condo for its deputy ambassador; they dined for 1 hour and 26 minutes on "American beef." On May 31 after a two and a half hour meeting at the Corinthian, Pompeo held a short press conference at the Lotte Palace Hotel at 2:15 pm. Inner City Press arrived as required at 1:15 pm; there was a full stand up by Fox then another cut short by someone's ring tone. Periscope video here. Pompeo took four questions (Bloomberg, WSJ, ABC and Fox) and was upbeat but declined to entirely confirm the June 12 talks are on. Why could he, if another statement like those on Bolton and Pence could get it called off again? Looks like it's a go. Will UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (again out of town until May 31, when he canceled the press Q&A he had scheduled) try to make himself relevant? Seems not. On travel ban exemptions, the UN Security Council website as Inner City Press exclusively reported is to be run by the "self employed" husband of the chief of staff of the Department of Political Affairs. The Dutch have a role in this website, DPA whistleblowers tell Inner City Press. We'll have more on this. Back on May 24 Trump wrote to Kim Jong Un, "based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting." Simultaneously, UN Secretary General put out a statement - praising North Korea for destruction of an already played out testing site. The UN under Guterres remains out of date, irrelevant and worse. But on the morning of Saturday May 26, Trump's spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "The White House pre-advance team for Singapore will leave as scheduled in order to prepare should the summit take place." And just before 9 pm on May 26, in a White House event marking the release of a Utahan from Venezuela, Trump said:
“We're doing well on summit with North Korea.. there's a lot of good will... if we can be successful in de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula. We're looking at June 12 in Singapore, that hasn't changed.”
But the UN remains a place of untransparency. At 3 pm on May 24 Inner City Press asked the Dutch chair of the UN's 1718 DPRK sanctions committee if the exemptions granted will be rescinded. He said he would answer later - but was gone when the UN Spokesman's Office announced the afternoon's consultations were over. The Committee's website lists exempted correspondent banks but not travel ban exemptions; the UN Security Council website as Inner City Press exclusively reported is to be run by the "self employed" husband of the chief of staff of the Department of Political Affairs. The Dutch have a role in this website, DPA whistleblowers tell Inner City Press. Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom pointedly declined to answer Inner City Press' question(s) on May 30, here. We'll have more on this. Watch this site. Ealier in the day at the UN Security Council stakeout, the Dutch deputy ambassador repeated that it would be a bumpy road; Sweden's ambassador said he had just seen the news. The French Ambassador Francois Delattre refused to stop or answer any questions, as has become more and more routine. Trump on May 10 had tweeted "The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th." On May 22 North Korea state media Minju Joson laid down this line: "If the U.S. and the South Korean authorities persist in the confrontation policy and war moves against the DPRK, oblivious of this fact, they will be held wholly accountable for all the ensuing consequences. Dialogue and saber rattling can never go together.”
So the odds now change daily, and the UN remains marginal at best. While North Korea said it was inviting to witness its destruction of nuclear testing site at Punggye-ri from May 23 to 25 media from South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and the UK, it gave no response to South Korea's transmission of the names of journalists. Hope springs eternal: the South Korean journalists nevertheless took off for Beijing, intent in re-transmitting their names. From there a Unification Ministry official said, "We tried to convey the list through the Panmunjom communication channel at 9 a.m. today, but the North declined to accept it." The South Korean journalists were left behind in Beijing by the others, then themselves left. Now this, from South Korea's Unificatin Ministry: We delivered a list of eight reporters from two outlets to the North today, and the North accepted it." Watch this site.Marginal UN's Secretary General Antonio Guterres, refusing on the record, had a lunch with his favored correspondents on May 21, with wine; nothing emerged and Guterres was reportedly not not asked about UN corruption, the China Energy Fund Committee bribery case, sexual harassment cover ups at UNAIDS, UNESCO and as is relevant here the IAEA or his continuing restriction on the Press which reports on them. Meanwhile Japanese media reach out to Inner City Press about its UN corruption exclusives, while slowest and most right wing Sankei Shimbun writes derivativesly about Santa Fe, Texas. Second tier.
