No go-ahead for ministers to make North Korean trip
Halligan, Ross and McGrath wanted peace talks with dictator
INDEPENDENT Alliance ministers will not be given Government permission to visit North Korea because Taoiseach Leo Varadkar wouldn’t want “anything beastly” to happen to them.
Revelations that John Halligan, Shane Ross and Finian McGrath have written to the Korean embassy in London seeking to meet dictator Kim Jong-un have been met with astonishment among their colleagues.
The idea has been rejected by the Taoiseach, who indicated it would not be a suitable mission.
Neither Mr Varadkar nor Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney were aware of the contact with Korean officials.
“It is not something that I envisage going ahead. I am sure that it is motivated from good intentions.
“It is of course a dangerous place to go and I certainly wouldn’t want anything beastly happening to any minister of state or member of Government,” Mr Varadkar said while on a trade mission in San Francisco.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is to arrange a briefing for Mr Halligan on the situation in North Korea next Monday.
OPW Minister Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran last night moved to distance himself from the controversy, saying he “wouldn’t be thanked” by his constituents for visiting the totalitarian state.
He said TDs should be focussed on delivering on the Programme for Government.
John Halligan told RTÉ’s ‘Today with Seán O’Rourke’: “The greatest threat to peace in the world is on the Korean peninsula. We’re not going as members of the Government, we’re going as three politicians.
“Any TD is at liberty to go to a country and visit, we’re not doing anything sensational, we’re not talking sides, we’re trying to initiate peace talks.”
Asked what he would say to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Mr Halligan said: “I would ask him to engage with democracy.”
Strike
The plans were ridiculed last night. Both Siptu and the Nbru – the two main transport unions – rounded on Mr Ross, saying he should instead focus on ending the rail strike.
Fianna Fáil’s sport spokesperson Kevin O’Keeffe described the plans as “ludicrous”, saying Mr Ross should instead be focussed on salvaging Ireland’s 2023 Rugby World Cup bid.
It emerged yesterday that the plans were not run by either the Department of the Taoiseach or the Department of Foreign Affairs. But the plans have caused a rift within the Independent Alliance.
Both Mr Moran and Galway East TD Seán Canney are believed to be against the idea.
“I wouldn’t be thanked by my constituents if I went to North Korea,” Mr Moran told the Irish Independent.
Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty played down the remarks.
“If I was planning my holidays for next year, North Korea is not somewhere I’d have on my list,” she said.