UNDP to resume N. Korea projects after suspected fund misappropriations

NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (Yonhap) -- The United Nations will soon resume development
projects in North Korea, nearly two years after it suspended work in the
communist state over suspicions that funds were being misappropriated, a source
said Thursday.
The executive board of the United Nations Development Program made the decision
after North Korea agreed to guarantee independent auditing and to alter the
methods for payment and selection of North Korean staff, the source said on
customary condition of anonymity.
"We expect the UNDP will resume its projects during the first half of the year
with a UNDP office reopening (in Pyongyang) in March," the source said,
expressing hope the office would coordinate projects involving the World Food
Program, UNICEF and other U.N. organizations in North Korea.
The source quoted a North Korean diplomat in New York as welcoming the UNDP's
return to the isolated nation.
North Korea has agreed that the UNDP will make payments to North Korean employees
using vouchers instead of U.S. dollars or euros, the source said, adding the
North has also concurred that it will allow the UNDP to present three candidates
for the selection of each North Korean staff member.
North Korea had previously selected UNDP staff members in Pyongyang on its own.
The two sides also agreed that the UNDP's development projects will focus on
humanitarian issues.
The UNDP had been engaged in development projects in the North since 1981,
including agricultural development, human resource development and economic
reform programs, before withdrawing in March 2007 soon after suspicions arose
over North Korea's misappropriation of development funds.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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