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L-R: John Halligan, Shane Ross and Finian McGrath RollingNews.ie

Taoiseach wouldn't want anything 'beastly' to happen Independent Alliance TDs if they go to North Korea

Yesterday, Independent Alliance TD John Halligan said he would be prepared to initiate peace talks with Kim Jong-un.

TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that he wouldn’t want anything “beastly” happening to any member of the government, after Minister of State John Halligan said he’d be prepared to go to North Korea to spark peace talks.

Speaking to journalists at a job announcement in California, Varadkar said that any visit from an Irish minister to the country is something he couldn’t “envisage going ahead”, but added that he was sure “that it is motivated from good intentions on [Halligan's] part”, RTÉ reports.

Halligan’s offer to help initiate peace talks came just hours before North Korean ruled out talks and threatened to increase its nuclear arsenal as Donald Trump set off on a tour of Asia.

Offering to help

Speaking on Today with Sean O’Rourke yesterday morning, Waterford TD Halligan said the ”greatest threat to peace in the world is on the Korean peninsula”.

“Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump are a threat to bringing the world to nuclear oblivion,” he said.

When asked what he would say to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if he met him, Halligan said: “I would ask him to engage with democracy.”

Halligan, who’s the Minister of State for Training and Skills said that Minister for Transport Shane Ross and Minister of State for Disability Finian McGrath would also travel to North Korea. He insisted that the visit would not be a State one and would be paid for by the three politicians, taken during their own free time.

Halligan said that he hadn’t discussed the issue with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar or Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney.

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.

“[But] I do think the government should get involved,” he added.

“I think there’s an inevitability [about it],” he said. “We’ve two choices, will there be war or will there be talks, will there be peace? We are prominent, neutral politicians, and we’re highly respected [around the world] for our neutrality.

We’ve nothing to lose? What is there to lose by attempting to talk peace with North Korea?

“Dangerous place to go”

Fine Gael poured cold water on its coalition partners’ plans, however, with the Taoiseach saying that North Korea is “a dangerous place to go” and that he feared something “beastly” could happen to Halligan and colleagues on such a trip.

Minister of State for European Affairs Helen McEntee said that any mission of this kind would have to go through the Department of Foreign Affairs and run past the Taoiseach, which Halligan admitted he had not done.

She said: “Anything as sensitive as this would have to go through to the Department of Foreign Affairs [and he] would have to, at very least, talk to Minister Simon Coveney. And that’s what needs to happen now.”

With Trump due to arrive in Japan and South Korea in the next few days, the North’s state-run KCNA news agency said in a commentary that the US should be disabused of the “absurd idea” that Pyongyang would succumb to international sanctions and give up its nuclear weapons, adding that it is in “the final stage for completing nuclear deterrence”.

“It had better stop daydreaming of denuclearisation talks with us”, said the commentary titled “Stop dreaming a daydream”.

With reporting from Gráinne Ni Aodha and AFP.

Read: Peace and Neutrality Alliance welcomes John Halligan’s request to go to North Korea to spark peace talks

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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alan Corlett
    Favourite Alan Corlett
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:38 AM

    Well we have a teacher pretending to do a Taoiseachs job

    204
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    Mute Buckwheat MacMillan
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:46 AM

    Very original, an off topics dig at govt. a first for the journal

    88
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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
    Favourite Neal Ireland Hello
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:49 AM

    Alan, it’s quite normal for a taoiseach to have been in a different job before he became taoiseach. They don’t come up through a special Taoiseach-training college.

    119
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    Mute Alan Corlett
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    Apr 26th 2015, 12:01 PM

    Therein lies the problem

    58
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    Mute Lesley Mulhall
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:41 AM

    Is it wrong that I found that quite funny? Head case. What possessed her.

    76
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    Mute Arthur Pewty
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:43 AM

    yes, it is wrong.

    25
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    Mute juicy pants
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:46 AM

    You’re the head case for finding that funny.

    24
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    Mute Lesley Mulhall
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:47 AM

    Think I might be on my way to hell!

    55
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    Mute juicy pants
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:54 AM

    Get her to pull your teeth and you’re half way there!

    22
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    Mute Alan O Reilly
    Favourite Alan O Reilly
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:58 AM

    What time do dentists take a break….tooth hurty

    74
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    Mute Biscuits Patinkin
    Favourite Biscuits Patinkin
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    Apr 26th 2015, 12:09 PM

    TAXI FOR O’REILLY

    44
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    Mute Chief
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    Apr 26th 2015, 12:32 PM

    One way to nevercomebacksville

    12
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    Mute Celticspirit321
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:35 AM

    Plenty cowboys in Ireland too

    71
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    Mute Chief
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    Apr 26th 2015, 12:30 PM

    I know!!!

    54
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    Mute Joanna
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:53 AM

    She totally copied Mr. Bean.

    34
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    Mute David Beattie
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    Apr 26th 2015, 12:02 PM

    At least the authorities copped on to her and got to the Root of the problem.

    26
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    Mute Mark Fields
    Favourite Mark Fields
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    Apr 26th 2015, 11:41 AM

    Tooth fairy?

    18
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    Mute tonymcc
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    Apr 26th 2015, 12:01 PM

    Looks like she has nice teeth,

    15
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    Mute Lauren Masterson
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    Apr 26th 2015, 12:14 PM

    I cried reading this.. All those poor patients … I’m crying for them … I sympathise for the ones who now have dry socket .. I have dry socket on both sides of my mouth where I had my upper wisdom teeth removed last week by a real dentist .. Well I think it was a real dentist. Lol seriously though whatever about pulling teeth performing root canals ??? Ouch

    14
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    Mute Lauren Masterson
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    Apr 26th 2015, 2:49 PM

    Thanks pontius your support is appreciated . Big shout out to the manufacturers of neurophen plus !!

    11
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    Mute Anna Fierce
    Favourite Anna Fierce
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    Apr 26th 2015, 6:22 PM

    I think the moral of this story is don’t comment on articles when you’re dosed up on pain meds!

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    Mute Lauren Masterson
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    Apr 26th 2015, 6:36 PM

    I think you may be right…… All the red thumbs.. My ego is hurt as well as my mouth now :(

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    Mute molly coddled
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    Apr 27th 2015, 12:40 AM

    @Lauren, cotton wad soaked in oil of cloves works wonders.

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    Mute molly coddled
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    Apr 27th 2015, 12:44 AM

    *for a dry socket infection.

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    Mute Lauren Masterson
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    Apr 27th 2015, 10:15 AM

    Somebody actually told me the exact same thing yesterday ! I will do that today ! Thank you @Molly

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    Mute Chris
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    Apr 26th 2015, 7:34 PM

    Seems yoy can’t handle the tooth!

    3
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    Mute Michael Vines
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    Apr 26th 2015, 3:35 PM

    She was pulling their teeth, seems that she was pulling their leg as well

    3
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