Chairman Mo: The envoy who never left the UN
By Judi McLeod
March 22, 2006
Canada Free Press
Original Source: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/cover032206.htm

Last July Canadian Maurice Strong resigned as a special advisor to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on UN reform and as UN envoy to North Korea after his affiliation with South Korean Tongsun Park implicated his involvement in a bribery scandal connected to the UN oil-for-food program.
Now the United Nations is working to help the world prepare an economic package for North Korea and help resolve the dispute over the communist state's nuclear arms program. 
And who's doing the shilling for the world economic package? Maurice Strong, who resigned as UN envoy to North Korea last July. 
In the sometimes surrealistic world of the Land of the Blue Helmet, a resignation doesn't mean forever. 
“The United Nations has concentrated on helping the international community to prepare an economic package (for the North) that could help resolve the nuclear issue,” Maurice Strong, former vice secretary general of the UN said on a special lecture here.” (The Korea Times, March 21, 2006). 
“Strong, also a former special envoy of the UN on North Korea, said the preparation was still going on, although “not as rapidly as we'd like.” 
The economic package, according to Strong, would at least include fuel for energy-starved North Korea, but the aid would not come directly from the United Nations. 
Nothing ever seems to ever come directly from the UN where things like the notorious oil-for-food project came through a circuitous route. 
In Strong's description, “It is not one that has to be done exclusively through the United Nations but one that can be done with the active support of the United Nations.” 
The former UN envoy said the North would prefer to deal with international donors individually, but claimed no substantial commitment would be made by any foreign donors unless there is an international program, or framework, to oversee the process. 
“It means the United Nations helps to provide a framework, then each country decides how much it will put in,” Strong said. 
Unless you live on Mars, you'll know what happened the last time an international program or framework was offered by the UN. 
According to Strong, the economic package being prepared by the United Nations would be separate from an economic package expected to be offered by countries involved in international negotiations over the North's nuclear programs, although the involved countries would be “key parties” in the UN package. 
To date, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States have held five rounds of talks with the communist North since October 2002 to bring a peaceful end to the latest dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. 
The North has agreed to dismantle its nuclear programs in return for economic and diplomatic benefits, but has shied away from the talks since November. 
“All of this work is being done to support the six-party talks, and all six parties would be key parties in the economic package,” Strong said. 
Strong emphasizes that the United Nations' economic package would only come as “part of” the settlement of the nuclear dispute following its resolution. 
Burning question of the New Year: Why is Maurice Strong still doing the talking for the UN?