UN Korea envoy suspends mission pending clarification of links to businessman

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Personal Envoy to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Maurice Strong, will suspend his assignment until the question of his association with Korean businessman Tongsun Park is resolved, a UN spokesman said today.

Mr. Annan "agrees that this is the appropriate thing to do," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told the daily news briefing in New York, and Mr. Strong, who has been helping to seek an end to the DPRK's nuclear weapons programme, hopes the issue will be resolved soon.

Mr. Park was indicted last week by the United States Attorney for allegedly acting as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's Government during negotiations in the 1990s to set up the multi-billion dollar UN Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq, which allowed sanctions-bound Iraq to sell oil in order to buy humanitarian supplies.

On Monday, Mr. Strong said he would make himself available to both a UN-appointed independent inquiry commission and a US probe into the programme to answer questions concerning his association with Mr. Park, who is accused of accepting million of dollars from Iraq for lobbying UN officials.

He said that having served UN Secretaries-General since 1970 in several advisory and executive capacities, he had no involvement or connection whatsoever with the Oil-for Food programme or any other UN Iraqi activities.

"Indeed I cannot recall a single instance in which I had any contact or discussion on the programme with any of the officials responsible," Mr. Strong added, noting that in 1997 Mr. Park invested "on a normal commercial basis" in an energy company with which he was associated that had no relationship with Iraq.

"I have continued to maintain a relationship with Mr. Park. Indeed, as a native of North Korea he has advised me on North Korean issues in my role as UN Envoy," he said.

As Mr. Annan's envoy, Mr. Strong has recently been intensifying UN efforts to secure a resumption of the so-called Beijing process, the six-party talks between the DPRK, Republic of Korea (ROK), China, Japan, Russia and the United States, seeking to end the DPRK's nuclear weapons programme. In February the DPRK pulled out of the process, stating publicly for the first time that it already had nuclear weapons.

"I expect that there will be peaceful resolution because the consequences of not resolving this issue are so horrendous for all parties that that itself provides a strong incentive to overcome the deep-seated distrust and hostility that has been built up over the last 50 years," Mr. Strong said at the time.