PN paper confuses Koreas in front-page ‘exclusive’ on ministerial visit

PN newspaper Il-Mument is wiping egg off its print face after a bizarre geographical gaffe which wrongly reported that transport minister Joe Mizzi was packing his bags for a visit to North Korea. 

Mizzi confirmed with MaltaToday that he was actually travelling to South Korea to attend a transport conference in Seoul. 

A front-page ‘exclusive’ report on Sunday, entitled ‘Labour and Muscat’s government off to North Korea’, claimed that Mizzi was going to represent the government on the occasion of the Asian country’s 67th anniversary celebrations. 

They also claimed that Alex Sceberras Trigona, former foreign minister and current special envoy to the World Trade Organisation, would be accompanying the minister to the Asian country as a representative of the Labour Party. 

“This visit was kept completely secret and will come as a shock to everyone, as North Korea is a country in which dictatorship and repression are the order of the day,” the paper reported. “Other democratic countries don’t have good relations with North Korea, because they know full well that democracy, liberty and human dignity are non-existent in that country.” 

However, a spokesperson for Mizzi told MaltaToday that the minister would actually be attending a conference in Seoul on the development of a transport network connecting Europe and Asia. 

The conference, entitled ‘ASEM Symposium on Eurasia Transport and Logistic Network, Seamless Eurasia: Making Connections’ will be held between 9 and 11 September – clashing with the North Korean festivities. 

“Mizzi will not be attending any celebrations whatsoever and he will not be accompanied by Sceberras Trigona,” the spokesperson said. “Expenses for the minister’s visit will be borne by the South Korean ministry for Land, Transport and Infrastructure.” 

“The only thing that will shock everyone is the PN newspaper’s historical and geographical ignorance.”  

A Labour Party spokesperson also denied that Sceberras Trigona was set to travel as a party representative to either of the two Koreas next month. 

The Mument report recounted how former Labour Prime Minister Dom Mintoff had established friendly diplomatic relations between Malta and North Korea and how former Labour Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici had controversially awarded the Gieh ir-Repubblika to former DPRK Supreme Leader Kim il_Sung. 

More recently, Joseph Muscat had, as Opposition leader, expressed his will to improve relations between Malta and North Korea, expressed his sympathy for the death of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il, and defended the DPRK’s right to launch a satellite.