Myanmar and Iran urge UNDP to return to North Korea and resume CASH operations

Yesterday during an informal discussion over UNDP's future in North Korea, the representative of Myanmar urged the Executive Board of UNDP to return to North Korea and resume funding to the Dictatorship Regime of Kim Jong-il. All this despite the fact that UNDP itself, has suspended operations. Kemal Dervis said in March 2007 that it had suspended its operations in North Korea after DPRK rejected conditions it set to ensure U.N. money was not being diverted to Kim Jong Il’s regime.


Its seem the Executive Board is forgetting what really happened on 25 January, 2007, where the Executive Board itself -- which included the United States, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan and 33 other nations -- had agreed to a set of conditions that would have kept the agency operating in the country. But when it had become clear that certain of those conditions -– those regarding staff payment and hiring practices -- could not be met by 1 March, UNDP had announced on 2 March its decision to suspend operations and withdraw all but two of its 22 staff in the country.

North Korean Ambassador Pak Gil Yon refused to accept the new conditions during a meeting (back in early March 2007) with the program’s associate administrator. The next day, UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis informed Pak that the agency “had no choice” but to suspend the program.

“For us, these conditions were nonnegotiable,” said spokeswoman Christina LoNigro (March 06, 2007). “They came from our board, and we would reconsider restarting our program if these conditions were met.”

During yesterday's meeting though, the representative of Iran also spoke of the need to redress damages to North Korea and said that UNDP has over-reacted to the charges on its operations in North Korea.

All the above while Khalilzad's boy was seating quite in a corner touching himself.

Also yesterday the North Korean representative spoke in front of the Executive Board, but in stead of confirming that DPRK would comply with UNDP rules and regulations, he continued to speak as if it was a meeting of the Communist Party of North Korea, calling for UNDP to immediately return to North Korea, and give Ownership of its programmes to DPRK officials.

Meanwhile inside the Executive Board the representative of UNDP's Staff Union stood quite in a corner looking at how Kemal and Ad were reinventing history and lying about the truth.

Only at UNDP kids, only at UNDP.