Scandal at the UNDP
January 26, 2007
The New York Sun
Original Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/47465
The United Nations is moving with uncharacteristic swiftness in the scandal that has erupted over the United Nations Development Program's operations in communist North Korea. The UNDP agreed yesterday to refrain from approving any new projects in North Korea until, as the Associated Press put it, an external audit addresses U.S. allegations that the agency has funneled millions of dollars to the communist regime in violation of United Nations rules. The UNDP's also agreed to end cash payments to the North Korean government and local suppliers and to stop hiring staff recruited by Pyongyang, the AP reported.
Our Benny Avni reports the UNDP failed to freeze completely its Pyongyang activities, as America and Japan would have liked. To appease countries like Syria and Russia, the UNDP board decided to maintain parts of the program that promote sustainable human development objectives. As our Benny Avni reports on page 7 today, even the UNDP board's president, Carsten Staur of Denmark, was unable to tell which parts of the North Korean program would remain intact under such guidelines.
It was Melanie Kirkpatrick of the Wall Street Journal who disclosed last week that the North Koreans had succeeded in manipulating the UNDP. She quoted previously undisclosed documents, including a January 16 letter to a UNDP aide from a U.S. ambassador, Mark Wallace. He asserted that the UNDP's program in North Korea for years operated in blatant violation of U.N. rules, served as a steady and large source of hard currency and other resources for the DPRK government with minimal or no assurance that UNDP funds and resources are utilized for legitimate development activities.
Ms. Kirkpatrick reported that there's no evidence to date that corrupt UNDP officials are in on the game. But she wrote that given the U.N.'s record of late, it would be unwise to rule that out before a full investigation. It's an important point. The leadership of the UNDP has emerged as one of the most politicized U.N. factions. Its longtime director, Mark Malloch Brown, was tapped by Secretary General Annan as his principal deputy, only to turn against the Bush administration and lash out at the Congress in a bet that the Democrats would gain control of one or both houses.
Mr. Brown won his bet, and the United Nations is more or less untouchable in Congress, at least for a while. All the more important are independent institutions and the administration, as well as the government of Japan and the new secretary general, in keeping the emerging scandal under active investigation. Particularly at a time when the North Koreans are helping Iran build a nuclear bomb and delivery system to aim at our side in the global struggle.