UNDP to resume operations in N. Korea in February

SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- The U.N. development agency plans to restart its
operations in North Korea in February after a two-year hiatus, a U.S. radio
station reported Saturday.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman at the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), told Voice
of America that the remodeling of its Pyongyang office was completed in September
and works are underway to install furniture and other equipment as well as to
connect the Internet.
The office will become "fully operational" by the end of February, he said.
Currently, Jerome Sauvage, head of the UNDP's Pyongyang office, and two other
foreign staffers stay there, with two others due to arrive in Pyongyang in
February, according to the spokesman. The UNDP has already recruited 13 North
Korean employees, he added.
The UNDP launched development projects in the North in 1981 -- including
agricultural development, human resource development and economic reform
programs. But it withdrew from Pyongyang in early 2007 after suspicions arose
over the reclusive communist regime's misappropriation of development funds.
On her visit to Seoul last month, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said that her
agency will reopen the office "with a small program -- around $2.5 million a year
and a very small number of employees."
The UNDP, meanwhile, shut down its office in Seoul earlier this month as South
Korea has transformed itself from a recipient of international assistance to
donor.
(END)