I thought OUR chair this month was limited to Nikki....guess not.
From my very limited understanding, she’s the ambassador to the UN. Tillerson is at State, which represents us abroad. State is foreign policy, and since tension with the norks is reaching a level where the ceasefire might evaporate, it’s better for him to brief the useless idiots comprising the UN.
The general rule at the UN is most issues are handled by UN Ambassadors. When an issue becomes more urgent or dire, nations send higher level officials like the Secretary of State.
In this hearing I counted 17 speakers. Nations sent 3 different levels of diplomats to the meeting:
The UN Secretary General
8 Foreign Ministers (including Rex Tillerson)
3 Deputy Foreign Ministers
5 Ambassadors
All 15 nations on the Security Council had a speaker, plus South Korea. North Korea didn’t even bother to have a speaker defend themselves in the hearing.