. . . and Kofi Annan Stays in His Suite at the Waldorf Astoria

In final the days leading up to Freedom House’s Seoul conference, the movement to put human rights back into the center of South Korea’s policy toward the North appears to be gaining momentum. It is still a fragile moment. The momentum could still be lost to petty factional and interpersonal disputes. If the movement’s leading lights unite, however, it could also shift South Korea’s national debate, across the political spectrum, as Korea’s political parties prepare and adjust their platforms in anticipation of the 2007 elections.

By this time, no one really expected a brave stand or a forthright word from the U.N. Secretary General, so this took me by surprise:

UN General Secretary Kofi Annan is scheduled to visit the country from Dec. 7 to 9, the South Korean Foreign Ministry announced yesterday. Mr. Annan’s visit comes seven years after his last visit to Seoul in 1998. He is expected to pay a courtesy call on President Roh Moo-hyun and will meet with Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon before holding a joint press conference.

Issues to be discussed with Mr. Ban include the North Korean nuclear crisis, reforms in the UN and outstanding geopolitical issues in the region. Seoul hopes the visit will further enhance ties with the UN and improve cooperation with the international body. The general secretary is scheduled to visit China, Japan and Vietnam during his Asian trip.

Might Annan actually make an appearance at the conference? Might he meet with Kang Chol-Hwan, thus bringing world attention and a bit of his residual moral authority to the worst humanitarian crisis on the face of the earth? The timing seemed remarkably coincidental, which caused me to recall the public discomfort of Ban Ki-Moon, the Foreign Minister of South Korea’s appeasement-minded government:

“The government’s involvement in the conference could affect inter-Korean relations as a whole,” officials said. “We are mindful how the North will react to the conference since inter-Korean ministerial talks are scheduled on Dec. 13, right after the conference.

Ban certainly couldn’t have been pleased to learn that Kofi Annan would be in Seoul during the Freedom House conference. Had Annan not intended to make an appearance, it could not have pleased him to scurry through Seoul without so much as a word of support. It’s evident that word of the FH conference eventually reached Annan’s inept ears, and I’d bet two mortgage payments that Ban and Roh were behind it. So today, we are told that Kofi bravely ran away:

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has put off a trip to Korea planned for Dec. 7-9.

The UN told the Foreign Ministry Annan’s visit to Korea and other Asian countries was inevitably delayed due to internal discussions about the organization’s budget for next year. The UN apologized to the Korean government, the ministry said.

Isn’t that the most amazing coincidence?

Why, you may ask, does the United Nations even exist? Here is Article I, Paragraph 3 of the U.N. Charter:

To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. . . .

The Charter’s very preamble claims that its members are determined “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person.” It’s encouraging, to be sure, that the General Assembly has finally gotten around to condemning North Korea’s human rights record, now that the soft tissue has decayed from the two million or so victims cut down in the Stalinist state’s last “engineered” famine. Yet the UNHCR remains as worthless as ever in its failure to assist North Korean refugees.

You may believe Kofi Annan’s excuse. You may think that there must be some other perfectly good explanation. I don’t. Kofi Annan could just as well have met with Kang at any time or place. Or publicly denounced the crimes of the North Korean despots. Or called for the establishment of refugee camps, or feeding stations, or safe passage through China. The timing is simply too coincidental, the excuse too lame. Kofi may not recognize the face of evil, but he knows and fears the faces of people who do.

This is the time, and the reason, to dramatically reduce U.S. taxpayer largesse for the America-hating United Nations, with the exception of urgent humanitarian operations (famine relief, vaccinating kids, etc.). The U.N.’s Secretary General, a man whose corruption is now beyond much doubt, has come face-to-face with the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and what courageous statement did he make? He turns his lying, cowardly eyes back to the Waldorf Astoria, from which he ought to be summarily evicted for dereliction of duty.

There were already sufficient reasons for Kofi Annan to leave office in disgrace. The simple fact is that he is not carrying out the mission with which he is charged by the U.N. Charter and numerous international treaties. He should resign. The United Nations should be led by the likes of General Romeo Dallaire and inspired by the likes of Rabe, Sugihara, and Schindler. Why can we do no better than Kofi Annan, Mary Robinson, Ruud Lubbers, and Maurice Strong? What a waste of money, opportunities, and lives the United Nations has become. Let the French and the Chinese pay them.