Foreign minister’s boasts to North Korean envoy: ‘We have biggest ship registry’

Foreign minister Tonio Borg failed to express international condemnation on the planned rocket tests by the communist dictatorship of North Korea or express concern on its dismal human rights record during a courtesy visit by the pariah state's ambassador, a parliamentary question on Monday evening revealed.

While the PN media is putting much store in condemning the meeting between Han Tae Song and Labour leader Joseph Muscat in a farewell call by the ambassador, largely on the strength of a press release by North Korean state agency KCNA, Tonio Borg had to reveal in parliament that during the meeting he talked about Malta's record number of tourists in 2011, Malta's ship registry being the largest in Europe, the high rate of direct foreign investment, and its low rate of unemployment.

"I also augured that talks with South Korea will resume and peaceful solutions are found to the conflict between them," Borg told the House.

The meeting requested by the North Korean ambassador upon the expiry of his term in office took place on 3 April, ten days before the failed launching of a satellite to mark the centenary of North Korea's first communist dictator Kim il Sung.

The launching of the long-range rocket to mark the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth sparked condemnation from the US, South Korea, Japan and others who claim North Korea's ambition is in violation of a United Nations resolution.

Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, expressed deep concern on the satellite launch and the "human rights and humanitarian situation" in North Korea on 28 March a few days before the ambassador's meeting with Borg.

The Nationalist Party had previously condemned the Labour Party, largely on reports by North Korea's news agency. which claimed that during a meeting with the same ambassador Opposition leader Joseph Muscat described the regime's ambition to launch a satellite as "a legitimate right of sovereign states", and that he would expand the friendly relations between Labour and the Democratic Republic of North Korea.

In a statement the Labour Party did not deny saying that launching satellites is a legitimate sovereign right but "clarified" that in the meeting Labour expressed "clear opposition to nuclear armaments" while stating that it respected the integrity of sovereign states.