UNDP to resume N. Korea projects next year: Clark

By Tony Chang
SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- The head of the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) said Monday that the organization was finalizing plans to resume projects
in North Korea next year, expecting them to cost US$2.5 million annually.
"I would expect that when the resident coordinator is properly established ...
and the office is fully operational, you can probably expect next year to see
some forward movement," UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said at a press conference
in Seoul.
The UNDP had 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.
Clark was in Seoul to sign an agreement on setting up the "Seoul Policy Center
for Global Development Partnership" early next year. The center will replace the
UNDP's Seoul office, to be closed next month.
The "consensus of the executive board was that the office should reopen. It's
reopening with a small program -- around $2.5 million a year and a very small
number of employees," Clark said.
Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand who was appointed to head the
agency early this year, said there will be six projects, including those in the
areas of "sustainable rural energy and sustainable rural livelihoods."
"There will also be some work done on the collection of proper statistics around
the Millennium Development Goal progress."
The resumption of the project will not infringe on U.N. Security Council
sanctions on the communist country, he said.
The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) adopted sanctions resolutions after North Korea
conducted long-range missile tests in April and a second nuclear test in May. The
resolutions call for financial sanctions and an overall arms embargo that allows
member countries to inspect North Korean ships suspected of carrying weapons of
mass destruction.
Regarding past allegations of the misappropriation of development funds in the
North, Clark said those issues were fully investigated and resolved.
"They were fully investigated, there was not a shred of truth in them and they
caused a lot of distress to the organization at that time, leading to the closure
of the office."
"Those issues have been totally resolved; that's why the executive board has
agreed that the office should reopen. Of course, it will be reopened in a
responsible way with the appropriate checks and balances in place."
odissy@yna.co.kr
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