North Koreans Spurn Audit by United Nations
By Benny Avni
May 10, 2007
The New York Sun
Original Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/54166
UNITED NATIONS — An audit of the U.N. Development Program's North Korean operations, which will be handed over soon to U.N. member states, was prepared without the auditors visiting the country.
The audit, which Secretary-General Ban ordered in January, was recently completed, though Pyongyang defied Mr. Ban's request that it cooperate with the auditors. A spokeswoman for the secretary-general, Michele Montas, confirmed to reporters yesterday that the audit had been completed but said she was not familiar with its conclusions.
A week after the March 19 launch of the audit, North Korean authorities informed the UNDP that they would not cooperate with the auditors, according to a U.N. summary of events. The summary, prepared by the counselor of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, Camilla Brückner of Denmark, was distributed Tuesday to Ecosoc members, who are responsible for overseeing the UNDP.
On March 26, North Korean government representatives told the UNDP that while the audit exercise could be held in DPRK for other U.N. agencies, UNDP could not expect Government to agree to an audit of UNDP programs, Ms. Brückner wrote in the e-mailed summary, obtained yesterday by The New York Sun.
Asked if the auditors attempted to visit North Korea, and whether they were denied entry, Ms. Montas said: As far as I know, they have not asked for visas, and they have not been refused visas.
Mr. Ban ordered an external audit of all U.N. agencies on January 19, shortly after a Wall Street Journal report about American allegations that the UNDP violated its own rules in its North Korean operations. Funds intended for the North Korean people may have been diverted to the regime and may have been used in its nuclear weapons program, America alleged.
Shortly afterward, Mr. Ban's spokesmen said the U.N. Board of Auditors would appoint a team to concentrate on the North Korean UNDP program. After the team completed its investigation, it would audit other agencies. On February 28, Mr. Ban wrote a letter to the North Korean government requesting assistance with the audit.
Ms. Montas told reporters that the audit began March 19. According to Ms. Brückner's timeline, that was two days after seven of the nine UNDP staff members in Pyongyang were transferred out of the country. Also, according to documents seen by the Sun, the UNDP started to transfer its assets in the country back to North Korean control on March 24, at the government's request.
According to Ms. Brückner's e-mail, on March 27 the UNDP instructed its representatives to transfer all of the agency's office files, selected Country Office assets, and project assets to a separate U.N. agency active in the country, the World Food Program, for safekeeping. Last month, however, a UNDP spokesman, David Morrison, told reporters that the ownership titles to many of the project's assets, which Pyongyang had already seized, were transferred to the North Korean government.
U.N. and UNDP officials insist that the auditors did not need to visit the country to complete their work. But one source familiar with the UNDP, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it is difficult to assess who benefited from the UNDP's assistance — the North Korean people or the Kim regime — without seeing the program's North Korean operations.
For example, the source said, the UNDP supplied several truck-mounted electric generators to aid the country's agricultural program. Satellite photos of North Korea's missile launch over the Sea of Japan last July showed similar-looking generators and trucks, he said.