NYC Letter: "A House Of Many Lies" -- Sniffles For Kim Jong-il

MERRY CHRISTMAS! +3

Day 1,071 of CHOPE

In 1984 when I was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. ... He said to me, you’ll be serving in a house of many lies.

Benjamin Netanyahu,
Prime Minister of Israel, saying what everyone knows
but few will say
ADDRESS TO UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK September 23, 2011
(Weasel Zippers)

The United Nations honors a murderous tyrant. OK. [Pause.] So what's new?

TEARS FOR FEAR
PYONGYANG, North Korea
[Photo source: AFP]

U.N. ASSEMBLY HOLDS "MINUTE" OF
SILENCE FOR KIM JONG-IL

NEW YORK December 22, 2011 (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly granted a request from North Korea and held a few moments of silence on Thursday for Kim Jong-il, the country's former leader who died on Saturday, though Western delegations boycotted it.

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the 193-nation assembly, called for a "minute of silence" before the start of a routine meeting at 3:00 p.m. EST in the half-empty U.N. General Assembly hall:

It is my sad duty to pay tribute to the memory of the late Kim Jong-il, Secretary-General of the Workers Party of Korea, Chairman of the National Defense Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, who passed away on Saturday, December 17.

The minute of silence lasted for 25 seconds before Nasser proceeded with the scheduled meeting. The United States, European Union member states and Japan were among the countries that boycotted the tribute to Kim Jong-il.

North Korea's U.N. mission made a similar request to the Security Council, but Western diplomats said it was rejected. "We didn't think it would be appropriate," a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Brilliant. Good call, anonymous.

Several Western diplomats said Pyongyang's request for Kim to be honored was highly unusual. They voiced surprise that Nassir had granted it and added that their delegations would most likely boycott the moment of silence in the assembly.

U.N. LOWERS FLAG TO
HALF-STAFF FOR KIM FUNERAL

NEW YORK December 28, 2011 (Reuters) - U.N. offices around the world lowered their flags to half-staff to mark the funeral of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday in a move the world body said was routine but which prompted objections from some human rights activists.

In New York, where the flag outside U.N. headquarters was lowered, spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the gesture had been requested by Pyongyang's U.N. mission but was normal for the funeral of any head of state. Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch:

Today should be a time for the U.N. to show solidarity with the victims - the millions of North Koreans brutalized by Kim's merciless policies of starvation, torture and oppression - and not with the perpetrator.

... Pyongyang is under Security Council sanctions due to Kim's nuclear weapons program, which Western officials say ate up huge sums of money that could have been used to help feed North Korea's starving population.

We are not surprised when thugs band together to see one of their own off. But at the sanitized level of make-nice diplomacy no one is so morally debased nor murderous not to merit a polite sniffle.

EX-PRESIDENT CARTER SENDS
CONDOLENCES TO KIM JONG-UN

A dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Mr. Carter sent the message to Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il's son and heir apparent:

In the message Jimmy Carter extended condolences to Kim Jong Un and the Korean people over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il. He wished Kim Jong Un every success as he assumes his new responsibility of leadership, looking forward to another visit to [North Korea] in the future.

"Every success"! Continued successes with this and this and this. Every success with this and this and this. Oh, hope this works out, too.

When contacted by The Washington Times for comment, the Carter Center provided an email contact to a spokeswoman who is out of the office until the New Year.

Mr. Carter has already done his part to advance NoKo successes.

North Korea is routinely labeled as one of the world's most oppressive governments under an eccentric personality cult surrounding the Kim family. Harrowing reports from defectors describe North Korea as a dirt-poor nation filled with concentration camps and Communist propaganda. Kim Jong-il ran the reclusive country according to a "military first" policy since the mid-1990s, after a famine that may have killed as many as 2 million people.

Continued success with all that.

CHOPE.

U.N. tears for tyrants protocol.

Posted by Damian at December 28, 2011 11:30 AM