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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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Disgraceful company, stole the entire game off of a smaller developer, then sued the original developer for copyright infringement to boot. Complete and utter w*****s
Not a bunch to be trusted.
They also trademarked the word “Candy” in Europe.
Didn’t know that.
And there was me about to post a happy comment, oh well expect the worst and you’ll never be disappointed.
used to play it, got to level 167 i think, never paid a thing cos… its rigged. you could be stuck on a level from repeated play in one sitting, come back 2 days later, clear it right away. they see you’ve not used it in a while, so let you move on again. Got bored of it then. Logged into recently and im back at level 1, think they revamped it or maybe they do that if you stop using it for 6 months.
If you have kids near this, don’t let them pay a cent.
Not with a barge pole! Remember Zynga.
Bain of my life
I heard chuck norris just made it to level 587,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. He is halfway to completing the game.
On level 421 and I never have & never will pay a cent to play! :-)
Level 500 is impossible. I really don’t think it’s possible without buying extra moves or help. It’s the very last level so if you wanna finish the game you’ll have to pay up.
Level 500… Seriously, it’s driving me insane at level 86…
Got past it and on 508 now. There are no last levels, it goes on and on and on, taunting me to keep going or fail!!! Aaaah!!
No. Level 500 is the last level in Candy crush saga unless it haven’t done an update.
Dam it! Just updated it. Not on the last level anymore. Dam you Candy Crush!!
Passed level 500 yesterday after a month . Nightmare level
Hahahahaha, see it never flucking ends!! It’s a diabolical plot!!
Feel rather sorry for guy who made Candy Stripe, which King blatantly ripped off and netted loss of earnings as result.
You can still get the original Candy Stripe on Play store.
413 million profits with 12.5% tax! That’s over 51 million to the exchequer. thanks candycrush……… or not?
93 million people with their heads down tutting!!
…mind you, it seems like a little more of a realistic valuation
They’re not giving a valuation as far as I can see though, unless their multiplier is about 1.2 in which case barge pole distance is about as close as private investors are ever likely to get! They’ve just said how much they plan to raise, but no indication of market cap in this article. If the valuation is right they’ll get plenty of interest, lots of m&a in the industry so plenty willing to have a punt in the hope a tech giant might move for them down the road.
Good point(s).
If off to spend my money on cheap hookers so.
Always a sound investment! As long as the return doesn’t involve a trip to James’ of course!
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