U.S.: N. Korea misused UN cash

By Bay Fang
Washington Bureau
Published June 9, 2007

WASHINGTON -- A senior State Department official told members of Congress in a recent classified briefing that funds transferred to the North Korean government by the United Nations Development Program were used by the Kim Jong Il regime to pay enterprises involved in weapons sales, as well as to purchase buildings in Europe and technology that could be used in a nuclear weapons program.

A memo obtained by the Tribune details the May 23 briefing, given to about a dozen members of Congress and staff.

According to the memo, the UNDP paid almost $2.7 million for "goods and equipment" to a vendor with ties to a North Korean entity known to be the main financial agent in that country for sales of conventional arms and ballistic missiles. That entity has been singled out under the U.S. Treasury Department-administered Executive Order 13382, which freezes the assets of entities contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The memo, which the State Department says is based on eyewitness accounts from program officials and internal UNDP business records, also alleges that the program's local employees withdrew from the UNDP's account at Pyongyang's Foreign Trade Bank tens of thousands of dollars worth of what UNDP officials identified as counterfeit U.S. currency.

Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassadors Mark Wallace and Zalmay Khalilzad met with program Administrator Kemal Dervis to present him their evidence. "The information we provided indicated an apparent misuse and diversion of UNDP funds, business dealings with certain suspect entities affiliated with [North Korea], UNDP's procurement of potential dual-use equipment and information related to further use of counterfeit U.S. currency in the [North Korean] country program," said Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

According to Grenell, Dervis agreed to investigate and to "cease doing business with the suspect entities."

The State Department memo detailing the May briefing did not provide specific evidence to support the contentions, though other sources indicated that officials had documentation.

The UNDP is supposed to provide money only for humanitarian or development purposes.

UNDP spokesman David Morrison said in a statement: "I am surprised that the U.S. authorities did not come to us first to verify the allegations. At first glance, the allegations do not correspond at all with our own records, which we have scrutinized extremely closely in the past six months. However, we take the allegations seriously and are looking into them. In this connection, we have asked if the U.S. authorities would provide documentation that would substantiate and help us to investigate them."

Other allegations in the briefing included the North Korean government transferring $2.8 million of program money to North Korean missions in Europe and New York to buy buildings in France, England and Canada, and to fund the purchase of equipment that could be used for either civilian or military purposes, such as Global Positioning System equipment, computers and a mass spectrometer, an instrument used to measure the masses and relative concentrations of atoms and molecules.

The memo also mentions electronic transfers made by the program to the North Korean government, specifying that "during 2001 and 2005, UNDP ... transferred over $7 million of its funds" to a North Korean government entity and in 2001-02 transferred more than $8 million of other UN agencies' funds to the North Korean government.

The UNDP has said its Pyongyang office was responsible only for the transfer of $1 million a year on behalf of other agencies.

"It is disturbing but it should not be surprising," said Mike Green, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council until the end of 2005. "Cash transfers to the North Korean regime are tightly controlled at the top to ensure Kim can procure dual-use materials for his weapons programs, finance his operations abroad and provide luxury goods for the elite. This is all fungible money."

U.S.: N. Korea misused UN cash | Chicago Tribune

北朝鮮、国連資金２８０万ドルで海外不動産購入…米紙報道

【ワシントン＝大塚隆一】９日付の米紙ワシントン・ポストによると、米国務省は、北朝鮮が国連の開発資金のうち少なくとも２８０万ドル（約３億４０００万円）をフランス、英国、カナダでの住宅やビルの購入などに不正流用したとする機密報告書をまとめた。
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　問題にされているのは国連開発計画（ＵＮＤＰ）などが２００１年～０２年に提供した援助資金の一部。ＵＮＤＰは現地職員への不透明な給与支払いなどを受けて今年３月から北朝鮮での事業を停止しているが、新たな疑惑は流用額が一段と大きく、波紋を広げる可能性もある。

　ＵＮＤＰ側は提供資金の使い道について、本来の開発支援事業に使われたはずだとしている。

　国務省の報告書はこのほか、＜１＞約２７０万ドルの事業資金がミサイル関連物資の輸出にかかわっている北朝鮮の金融機関に支払われた＜２＞核開発にも転用可能な機材が供与された??などと指摘している。
（2007年6月9日19時25分 読売新聞）

北朝鮮、国連資金２８０万ドルで海外不動産購入…米紙報道 : 国際 : YOMIURI ONLINE（読売新聞）

曽我ひとみさん 中山首相補佐官、塩崎官房長官と面会

　拉致被害者の曽我ひとみさん（４８）が８日、首相官邸を訪れ、中山恭子首相補佐官、塩崎恭久官房長官と面会した。塩崎長官が拉致被害者と面会するのは初めてで、曽我さんは母ミヨシさんの早期救出などを求めた。
　それぞれ約１時間の面会後、中山補佐官は「曽我さんは（参院選への立候補で）補佐官を辞めるのではないかと心配していたが、そのまま続けると伝えた」と語り、選挙結果を問わず首相補佐官を続ける考えを示した。

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