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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.
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So the book shamelessly plugged for weeks by Aoife at Journal.ie wins the Journal.ie sponsored award presented by Aoife. All above board so, move along.
This book was edited by Sepp Blatter and funded by Bertie Ahern. Well done to all.
The ‘If you sponsor an award you can pick which book you want to win’ awards.
Hi Peter, we sponsor the award – we don’t pick who wins. The votes for all of the awards are cast by a judging panel who we are not involved with or members of, and members of the public.
I wrote a number of articles as part of our sponsorship, (like other publications did) on a number of the nominees. You can find them if you search for ‘Irish book awards’ on the site.
Also I wrote two pieces on Long Gaze Back, one when it was published in September and one yesterday, after the public voting for the awards had closed.
The ” give everyone an award to get the books into the media to increase sales for Christmas awards”
“Ireland AM Crime Book of the Year”.
If I were that author I’d be dropping the “Ireland AM” bit from my CV.
Bressie looks delighted. I’m glad that he won an award. Awards for anthologies always puzzle me. It’s basically a prize for other peoples work and imagination.
So the Journal award goes to one of it’s own ???
To The Journal.ie… I am curious how votes were cast in your office for this award.. If #wakingthefeminist was about conspiracy AGAINST female writers, then I suppose this award is a conspiracy FOR female writers..
Hi Sinead, we sponsor the award – we don’t pick who wins. The votes for all of the awards are cast by a judging panel who we are not involved with or members of, and members of the public. Hope that clears things up for you.
Joe Duffy and Niall Breslin…….SAKE!
Right, that’s the feminist list.
Now where’s the real list?
Delighted for Dónal Ryan – a stunning collection of short stories. Well deserved!
But that award is for s single short story, ‘slanting of the sun’. I didn’t think it was the best story in the book?
I though gilmores book would have been a shoe in for the fiction award after all his promoting and drama and shot at dawn bull. Maybe it’s in the fantasy section or heaven forbid, maybe it’s just crap, and nobody’s buying it!
Jim mcguinnesses book is very good.
Awards for books that hardly anyone will bother reading.
speak for yourself
In my humble opinion Mr Donleavy is a tad over rated. The ginger man was his first and best book. After that he descended into a surreal sort of post aristocratic Irish pastiche. First prize for his longevity. Still fighting fit in his mid nineties. I suspect keeping his exposure to other humans to a minimum helps with this.
Not Ireland’s favourite books. They would be the ones people read and enjoyed. Most likely to be found topping the charts. These are winning books picked from eligible books whose entry is sponsored by the publisher. Having said that, for the winning authors, it’s nice to get the recognition. Congratulations to them.
Ur old enough to know the rich look after the rich best thing is they do not look happy happy days
I’m sure you’re right j k but I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.
No Irish author in the Mills & Boon series? No Irish novelist nominated for the Bad Sex award in Britain?
Joe Duffy – oh, is that the one with the national radio show, the one that’s been promoting his book all year, at licence payers’ expense? The one who had his book printed in Germany?
Oh yes, so it is.
“This is a local book for local/ German jobs.”
Yet the Bible keeps on selling, it reminds me of the so called charts. The best selling music that beats those on those famoust top 40 turns out to be classical music and Mozart keeps on selling.
So when I see charts, awards or the top 5 then I think that they exist in order to sell these goods as those who sell themselves well never get a mention…
have your say