Some comedy at last. Predictable, expected, but funny.
If US <i>will</i> keep giving moolah to TSP and the tyrant communist government of NK to be (mis)used, at least we may take comfort from the fact that there's less to fund the global missionizing crusade.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070609/19/13pgm.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sunday June 10, 08:31 AM
<b>US unveils new charges that North Korea misused UN aid</b>
Photo : AFPÂ
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - US diplomats have confronted the UN Development Program (UNDP) with new allegations that its funds were misused and improperly diverted by North Korea, the US mission to the UN said Saturday.
The mission essentially confirmed a report in Saturday's Washington Post citing US charges that nearly three million dollars in UNDP aid was used by the Pyongyang regime to buy property in France, Britain and Canada.
Millions more went to a "North Korean institution linked to a bank alleged to handle arms deals," the daily said, citing a secret State Department report based on witness testimonies and internal business records.
A spokesman for the New York-based mission told AFP that US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad and deputy ambassador Mark Wallace met with UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis Thursday and presented him with the new charges.
"The information we provided indicated an apparent misuse and diversion of UNDP funds, business dealings with certain suspect entities affiliated with the DPRK (North Korea), UNDP procurement of potential dual-use equipment and information related to further use of counterfeit US currency in the DPRK country program," the mission said in a statement.
The Washington Post said the dual-use equipment involved global-positioning equipment, computers and computer accessories, and a device that can determine the isotopic composition of elements.
The daily quoted a UNDP spokesman as saying the equipment was purchased for weather-forecasting purposes but that the US probe found that the equipment could also be used in a weapons program.
Pyongyang allegedly transferred 2.8 million dollars in UNDP funds to diplomatic missions in Europe and New York to "cover buildings and houses," including buying buildings in France, the United Kingdom and Canada.
US diplomats also charged that "UNDP paid nearly 2.7 million for 'goods and equipment' to a North Korean financial institution linked to Tanchon Commercial Bank (also known as Changgwang Credit Bank)," the paper said.
But in a statement released by its spokesman David Morrison Saturday, UNDP said : "the allegations do not correspond to our records, which we have examined very carefully over the past six months."
"UNDP takes the allegations very seriously," he added, noting that the US mission had been asked to "provide all available documentation that would substantiate the allegations and facilitate UNDPs immediate review of them."
The US mission however said that Dervis pledged to probe the matter, provide relevant information and "cease doing business with suspect entities."
"We are encouraged by Administator Dervis's commitment to address these concerns and correct past practices in the DPRK country program," a mission spokesman said.
The new charges surfaced barely a week after the United Nations said an internal audit of three UN agencies in North Korea found no proof of earlier US allegations of the systematic diversion of large-scale UN funding to the Pyongyang regime.
But UN auditors did highlight problems including "independence of staff hiring, foreign currency transactions and access to local projects."
In January, a US probe headed by Wallace charged that North Korea had, since 1998 and with the complicity of UNDP, "systematically perverted" the UN aid program "for the benefit of the Kim Jong Il regime, rather than the people of North Korea."
North Korea then angrily denied the US allegations, describing them as part of a smear campaign by hardliners in Washington to try to derail US-North Korean talks.
Following the US claims in January, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for an audit of UN programs and funding in countries such as North Korea.
In March, UNDP suspended operations in North Korea after Pyongyang failed to meet operational changes endorsed and mandated by the development agency's executive board.
The changes include ending all payments in hard currency to Pyongyang and discontinuing sub-contracting of local staff via government recruitment as of March 1.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If US <i>will</i> keep giving moolah to TSP and the tyrant communist government of NK to be (mis)used, at least we may take comfort from the fact that there's less to fund the global missionizing crusade.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070609/19/13pgm.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sunday June 10, 08:31 AM
<b>US unveils new charges that North Korea misused UN aid</b>
Photo : AFPÂ
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - US diplomats have confronted the UN Development Program (UNDP) with new allegations that its funds were misused and improperly diverted by North Korea, the US mission to the UN said Saturday.
The mission essentially confirmed a report in Saturday's Washington Post citing US charges that nearly three million dollars in UNDP aid was used by the Pyongyang regime to buy property in France, Britain and Canada.
Millions more went to a "North Korean institution linked to a bank alleged to handle arms deals," the daily said, citing a secret State Department report based on witness testimonies and internal business records.
A spokesman for the New York-based mission told AFP that US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad and deputy ambassador Mark Wallace met with UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis Thursday and presented him with the new charges.
"The information we provided indicated an apparent misuse and diversion of UNDP funds, business dealings with certain suspect entities affiliated with the DPRK (North Korea), UNDP procurement of potential dual-use equipment and information related to further use of counterfeit US currency in the DPRK country program," the mission said in a statement.
The Washington Post said the dual-use equipment involved global-positioning equipment, computers and computer accessories, and a device that can determine the isotopic composition of elements.
The daily quoted a UNDP spokesman as saying the equipment was purchased for weather-forecasting purposes but that the US probe found that the equipment could also be used in a weapons program.
Pyongyang allegedly transferred 2.8 million dollars in UNDP funds to diplomatic missions in Europe and New York to "cover buildings and houses," including buying buildings in France, the United Kingdom and Canada.
US diplomats also charged that "UNDP paid nearly 2.7 million for 'goods and equipment' to a North Korean financial institution linked to Tanchon Commercial Bank (also known as Changgwang Credit Bank)," the paper said.
But in a statement released by its spokesman David Morrison Saturday, UNDP said : "the allegations do not correspond to our records, which we have examined very carefully over the past six months."
"UNDP takes the allegations very seriously," he added, noting that the US mission had been asked to "provide all available documentation that would substantiate the allegations and facilitate UNDPs immediate review of them."
The US mission however said that Dervis pledged to probe the matter, provide relevant information and "cease doing business with suspect entities."
"We are encouraged by Administator Dervis's commitment to address these concerns and correct past practices in the DPRK country program," a mission spokesman said.
The new charges surfaced barely a week after the United Nations said an internal audit of three UN agencies in North Korea found no proof of earlier US allegations of the systematic diversion of large-scale UN funding to the Pyongyang regime.
But UN auditors did highlight problems including "independence of staff hiring, foreign currency transactions and access to local projects."
In January, a US probe headed by Wallace charged that North Korea had, since 1998 and with the complicity of UNDP, "systematically perverted" the UN aid program "for the benefit of the Kim Jong Il regime, rather than the people of North Korea."
North Korea then angrily denied the US allegations, describing them as part of a smear campaign by hardliners in Washington to try to derail US-North Korean talks.
Following the US claims in January, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for an audit of UN programs and funding in countries such as North Korea.
In March, UNDP suspended operations in North Korea after Pyongyang failed to meet operational changes endorsed and mandated by the development agency's executive board.
The changes include ending all payments in hard currency to Pyongyang and discontinuing sub-contracting of local staff via government recruitment as of March 1.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->