 I'm Kauai Lukas, host of Hawaii is My Main Land, live streaming Fridays at 3 p.m. Hawaiian Standard Time. My guest this week is the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of Hawaii. Recent escalation of irresponsible and radically aggressive behavior by North Korea is a call to action. Foreign Affairs Minister Leon Siew has been very busy mobilizing peace efforts in response. On Hawaii, Minister Siew, and welcome back to Hawaii is my land. Aloha, Micah. Good to be here. So, what's up? What have you been doing? Well, lots of things have been in Geneva quite a bit as well as New York. Both places are headquarters for the UN. In Geneva it's the Human Rights Council and other human rights bodies as well as the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Properties Organization, and World Health Organization. And then New York of course are the more political bodies, the Security Council as well as the General Assembly. So in all of those places we are as the Hawaiian Kingdom are trying to assert our, at least be able to explain to them the situation that we're in because of the United States occupation, but even more so the great danger that we've been put into because of the United States occupation, particularly the militarization of Hawaii. So the response to this recent aggression by North Korea, what is the Hawaiian Kingdom's take on this? Our take is of course that there has to be a peaceful settlement or peaceful agreement on both sides to put aside any kinds of talk of armed conflict because armed conflict these days means nuclear war, particularly with nuclear powers. And so the idea is that what we're trying to promote at the United Nations as well as hopefully directly with the United States and with North Korea to communicate that we the Hawaiians pose no threat or danger to them and that we have to be able to negotiate some kind of a settlement for the safety and security of our people and that it can't be just, well it should be for the immediate danger that we're facing, but also there needs to be a long range plan to diffuse any kind of possibility of warfare on our soil. So let's have the map. We have a couple of great visuals. This is from the UK's Daily News. Of course, yes. So in this map of course you see the Hawaiian Islands, very small islands, but we happen to be along with the Aleutian Islands, the western most outpost of quote the United States. And therefore we become targets and particularly since there is a large military presence of the United States in Hawaii, we are targets not only to Korea, North Korea, but to China and to Russia. We are the easiest, easily accessible, reachable targets that they have next to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. But anyway, so again the huge military presence here puts us in grave danger of actually nuclear annihilation because we're not talking about just a nuclear bomb that goes off like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that was bad enough. Now the smallest nuclear bombs, like 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the size of what happened in Nagasaki. So the peace efforts, what are, do we have some concrete actions, events? What is the scope of the discussions? Well, there's of course quite a bit of discussion going on at the Security Council as well as the United Nations. And they're doing the best they can, but the focus is on trying to get North Korea to back down and not to be so belligerent about their threats. But what we're trying to do of course is to insert this whole thing that everything must be settled in a peaceful manner and that our lives are at stake and we're not the combatants in this case or the people in the dispute. We actually are an innocent bystander and the only reason that we're being targeted of course is because of the United States presence. So have you been able to communicate with any of the North Koreans about? Not directly. It's a little bit awkward right now, but we are of course trying to, the communication with the North Koreans is particularly at this time in years past there has been some mild communications. But right now it's just everything's too hot and everything is suspect as far as any kind of communication. So we have to be circumspect in how we do that. So we need to go through intermediary countries like Switzerland and Sweden who both have embassies in North Korea and are able to act as in-betweens. So speaking of Switzerland, you've been pretty active there. Tell us a little about what's been happening in Switzerland. We have a photo of a panel that you were on this week. That was a panel that I was on with several people from Alaska. The three people out to the right are from Alaska and the person in the center is from India and she's a long time, very highly respected UN representative. And the person to her immediate right, the person who's next to me is Dr. Alfred Desaias who's the United Nations independent expert for the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, which is a very long title, but his position is actually quite impressive. And his position is that he can and is called upon to look critically at the United Nations, well to look at the United Nations and then criticize the things that need to be improved as well as to recommend them on the things that they're doing right. And so his report actually carries quite a bit of weight. So he does an annual report and in that annual report he has twice mentioned the situations of Alaska and Hawaii, particularly, well actually he's mentioned the situation of West Papua and Rapa Nui, Maluku and the La Puche, the Kashmiri and all around. Basically these are countries that should qualify to be in the program for the United Nations for decolonization. Hawaii doesn't actually fit that program, but what he's saying is that these are countries that are out there that kind of fell into the cracks after the whole decolonization process. The delisting, the so-called... Right, right, yes. So there was a list that was created in 1946 of countries that were still colonies of other countries, like Great Britain, France, et cetera, all still had colonies. And so everyone submitted the names of these countries and all of Africa, for instance, was colonized. And so those names were submitted and then now all of Africa are free. There's 51 countries in Africa that are now independent nations. Now there's still a lot of conflict and things going on, but the things they are independent. So of the 80 or so countries that were listed in 1946, only 16 were left on the list as of 2013. And in 2013, French Polynesia, Tahiti, was added back onto the list because it had been sort of surreptitiously removed by France, but it was put back onto the list. And what that did was it sort of triggered a response from the other nations, particularly those that had been decolonized in the last 40 years, and say, you know what, we're not through with this decolonization process yet. So Dr. Desaias took the opportunity to remind them that not only are there 16 or 17 on the list, but there are all these other countries, like Alaska and Hawaii. And so he actually reported that to the United Nations General Assembly with the idea that they should pay attention to these other countries. They should receive communications from countries like Hawaii and Alaska and the Mapuche and West Papua, et cetera, to consider being going through a self-determination process under decolonization. So is there anything happening here locally that people here might be able to? Well, actually, yes. What's going on locally is the assertion that the Hawaiian kingdom still exists is a very, very strong argument that falls into line with what we're trying to say at the United Nations. Now, like I said, Hawaii is a very different situation than, say, Alaska. Alaska was never an organized nation or organized country. And so they need to go through a decolonization process, meaning there needs to be a period of time in which the people can study and consider all the different options they have for self-government in the future and make a decision. So the decolonization process is simply saying that people have the right to self-determination. But they need to be informed, and they need to make a clear choice. Free-formed. Free, prior and informed consent. Consent, yes. That's the truth. So for Hawaii, we are in a different situation. Right, because we already were an organized, sovereign nation recognized by all the other nations. In fact, it can be argued that we still have treaty relationships with 173 of the 193 nations of the United Nations. Because colonial treaties under a colonial situation, those treaties actually transfer to the colonial country that becomes decolonized. So, say, all of Africa, for instance, still has by the fact that the Hawaiian Kingdom had treaties with their administrative powers, or their colonial powers. Now that they're free, we still have a treaty and implied treaty with them. OK, so that's kind of our official situation. There's more happening local. I feel a little, the Naio Pune movement has brought sort of a new wedge within the community. And there's the effort to take that constitution that was created last year by the unelected, now, Naio Pune candidates and put that forth and bring us back under the wing of the United States in a diminished capacity, in a very diminished capacity, extinguishing many rights in the process. So what is your approach to that? Well, of course. So what is being offered by the United States is just as you described, this federal recognition of the tribal nation, which is actually inadequate in the light of the fact that our situation, the Hawaiian Kingdom and the United States, is actually an international level of law. So what we're saying is that no matter what they decide under domestic law, it does not apply to the fact that the Hawaiian Kingdom still exists and the Hawaiian Kingdom has a nation to nation relationship. Now, that's something that I saw that the Naio Pune others have hijacked that term nation to nation. Actually, what they're talking about is a nation within a nation, a subservient nation within a nation, but they're using the term nation to nation, which is very misleading. Thank you, Minister Tiu. We're going to be wrapping up for a little break for a minute, and then we'll come back and explore this and the peace-making efforts a little further. All right. Aloha. You can be the greatest. You can be the best. You can be chess. You can talk to God. Don't bring it up. Because that's an interesting thing. Welcome back to Hawaii Is My Main Land. I'm Kaui Lucas, and with me today is the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of Hawaii. Aloha. Minister Tiu. Yes. We're back. So we were talking about some of your activities, and there's other places that you've been very active. Fiji, for instance. Right. You've been interfacing on that political level. Yes. The Minister of Foreign Affairs is actually the head of the Foreign Affairs, part of the government of the Hawaiian Kingdom. And usually the Foreign Affairs has, like the Secretary of State, has ambassadors under them and all of that. We don't have that capacity at this point. We have a few representatives out there, but not to the extent that Hawaii used to. We used to have 90 diplomatic legations all over the world. So we were one of the most heavily represented foreign powers in the world, or foreign actors. We weren't necessarily a power. So actually, although our concentration is toward the United Nations, because that's where the concentration of countries are. That's where they gather. So we're not necessarily trying to be a part of the United Nations. We're actually trying to get access to the foreign diplomats that are in these areas where they congregate. So one of the other places that there are regional congregations as well, there's the OIC, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. There's the African Union. Both of them have over 50 members. And then there's the Pacific Islands Forum, which has, I think, 15 or 16 members. And then there is the Melanesian spearhead group, which has five members. And these are all regional organizations, international organizations. There are several also in South America. So what I try to do is to contact them and go and talk with them as well. So I've been to the South Pacific a number of times through different conferences of either the Melanesian spearhead group with the Pacific Islands Development Forum and things like that. So I was in Fiji a number of, well, three years ago at the Pacific Islands Development Forum. And there's a photo, I don't know, that photos up with me. And this is actually a funny story. The prime minister, who I was talking to just a few minutes earlier, his name is Bayina Marama. And he and I were talking, he said, I need to go say hello to somebody across the room. So he goes across the room. Then a couple of minutes later, I see him motioning to me to join him. So I go over there and he introduces me to this woman. And so he says to her, he says to me, he said, May I introduce to you the ambassador of the United States to Fiji. And then he says to her, May I introduce to you the foreign minister of the Hawaiian kingdom. And he kind of stood back and tried to watch the reaction. And what was it? She's a great diplomat. There was hardly anything she thought very quickly on her feet. And just basically it was gracious and pleased to meet you. And I was able to chat with her a little bit and presented her with some of our brochures and materials and just talked to her and said we'd be talking about this later. Then I ran into her again a couple of times at other international events. Anyway, so that's what I'm trying to do is to actually make a presence or show up at these various meetings and just to talk story with some of these people and to remind them of our situation. But they are very much aware of our situation. Now being aware and being able to do something are two different things. And even being sympathetic and doing something are two different things. It's quite complex because of the way world politics work. But one of the things that occurred two years ago, and this was in Geneva, was that the Pakistan actually took a cue from Alfred Desai as the independent expert. And they asked a question while the United States was on the stand on a review. They asked a question about Hawaii in Alaska and shouldn't they be considered under international law rather than say the domestic law of federal recognition. And that kind of threw a wrench into the works for the United States because it was a very awkward question to try to answer. And when they did answer, their response was that we're taking care of it through our domestic federal recognition scheme. And that did not go well with most of the other countries who were there because they all recognized the fact that this is an invalid way to approach an international question about the sovereignty of the Hawaiian kingdom. And so what that did was that one single very innocuous question by Pakistan did was it opened up the door and basically they broke the ice on the question of the international standing of the Hawaiian kingdom. And so from then on, we've been really enjoying being able to talk much more freely from an international standpoint of international law. Okay, so when you've attended these events and so forth are you reporting to who are you reporting to and who tells you Minister Siu it's now time for you to go We have a cabinet council of the Hawaiian kingdom here. So I report to them and I also put out a newsletter to people who are interested. I can't divulge as too much mainly because it's sensitive and as you can see with all of the controversy going on in the U.S. right now if you speak to somebody somebody says well they've been talking and what does that mean but all kinds of conclusions or misinterpretations can be drawn and so we don't speak that much about what's going on behind the scenes but things like Pakistan asking a question or attending these different international meetings it's pretty much obvious we can say something about that but as far as discussions that are going on behind the scenes that's still sensitive. I apologize. So Minister Siu with regards to North Korea let's circle back a little bit what is the plan if you are allowed to talk about it for the nation of Hawaii's response the kingdom of Hawaii sorry. There's two levels of this one is the immediate danger which we would like to diffuse by finding a way to communicate with North Korea that we are in great danger and that we are not the enemy but at the same time understanding that Korea considers the United States the enemy and the United States is here but basically try to diffuse the immediate situation to maybe get some kind of concession to say okay well hold off for a little while or something like that we're not quite sure but the idea is to start some kind of a dialogue about differentiating between the Hawaiian kingdom and the United States and the state of Hawaii with the idea that we would work even more fervently for the United States to withdraw from Hawaii of course that's another problem but again that's what our goal was in the first place is to work toward the withdrawal of the United States and again to try to do it without animosity and without any kind of ranker to do it peacefully and to come to an agreement that this is best for both of us so that's the tricky part but it's doable and the real I keep on going back to it the real factor in this is the people of Hawaii to be able to to simply rise up and say this is our country and we have the right to determine our own future and the right to whether or not we're going to harbor military weapons of mass destruction here and things like that that should be our decision and so we need our people to rise up and to assert that you know I think it was in the late 80s I had been living in Germany and read German well enough to when there was an article that came out in the Shtern magazine and it showed where on earth nuclear weapons were and I was so shocked their smack on Hawaii there was the little symbol for nuclear I had no idea I thought isn't that interesting that I need to find out from German news source that you know we actually have nuclear weapons here in Hawaii the United States denies it but it's only reasonable to assume that we do and I understand it's been confirmed but we've got the biggest fleet in the Pacific one of the biggest fleets in the world stationed here with nuclear submarines and wait a minute they have to have weapons nearby they wouldn't be stored necessarily in Guam so it's got to be on board or and or in storage facilities here on land and as we well know through the events of the Second World War that certainly makes us a target that's right and you know the 75th anniversary of the Second World War you know again it was a very meaningful thing because again Hawaii was attacked but that was a specific attack over on Pearl Harbor the Air Force Base in Schofield and we're targeted there's very little collateral damage around Mr. Sioux we have two minutes left but I hear you went to the funeral of Fidel Castro in Cuba please tell me what that was like well that was part of the relationship that we've been building with various countries in South America so I went to that I was invited and went to Cuba it was actually quite a massive thing because there were a lot of people at the funeral and the funeral was held actually not in Havana but in the city where Castro was from which was about 800 miles away some distance away but anyway it was huge and it was massive and the whole Cuba was of course basically shut down during the whole time it was a national time of morning and so but what I was there not only to participate in that basically to honor the Cubans and their efforts and their ability to survive through all kinds of hardships but also to strike up a more direct contact with their Ministry of Foreign Affairs and were you able to do that? wonderful I went to Cuba in 2013 for international purple culture conversions really moved by the people there and their long, long, long struggles so when we come back to Hawaii we can reflect that there is hope yes and of course that has given us a term that we can use and that's normalized the Hawaiian Kingdom wants to normalize our relationship with the United States I think Minister Tiu that's an excellent place to say mahalo and I look forward to your next report thank you so much, aloha