Posted on 04/19/2005 9:50:42 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations is studying whether it was appropriate for the top U.N. envoy for North Korea to maintain business ties with a South Korean businessman accused of wrongdoing in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, U.N. officials said Tuesday.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he had not known about the ties between Maurice Strong and Tongsun Park, a native of North Korea and citizen of South Korea who was also accused in the 1970s of trying to buy influence in Congress.
Strong is the U.N. point man on stalled six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs.
"The allegations have just come out, and he has no plans to go to the region tomorrow," Annan told reporters Tuesday. Annan noted that Strong was not a full-time staff member, but did not elaborate.
U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said senior U.N. staff have recommended that Strong be suspended.
Strong denies any involvement with the $64 billion humanitarian program in Iraq and has pledged to cooperate with an oil-for-food probe led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Volcker's committee is investigating whether Strong had any ties to the program.
But his admitted ties with Park are raising questions about a possible conflict of interest with his U.N. role. Strong acknowledged on Monday that Park invested in an energy company he was associated with in 1997.
Stephane Dujarric, a U.N. spokesman, said the United Nations was studying whether it was appropriate for Strong to have ties with Park given that Strong, a well-known Canadian businessman with longtime association with the United Nations, was an envoy to the region.
"It's a decision by the U.N. administration to decide whether or not that is appropriate," Dujarric said.
Park was known to have been close to former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, according to U.N. staff.
"He was a friend - I assume still is a friend - of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali," said Joseph Verner Reed, an adviser to Annan and former special representative for public affairs.
Reed echoed comments by Gillian Sorensen, the former U.N. assistant secretary-general for external relations, who told The Associated Press on Monday that she recalled at least two occasions when Park met Boutros-Ghali.
Park was thrust back into the spotlight on Thursday, when the U.S. Attorney's Office accused him of accepting millions of dollars from the Iraqi government while he allegedly operated in the United States as an unregistered agent for Baghdad, lobbying for oil-for-food.
Committee spokesmen would not comment on whether they had already interviewed Strong in connection with oil-for-food, but in a statement said his "readiness to cooperate" was welcomed.
The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It let the Iraqi government sell limited - and eventually unlimited - amounts of oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods.
But Saddam chose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods. In a bid to end the sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for oil to be resold at a profit.
The criminal complaint could be damaging to the United Nations because it mentions that Park had met several times with two unidentified U.N. officials in apparent efforts to gain their support on oil-for-food.
According to a government witness, Park claimed that he had used a $5 million guarantee from the Iraqi government to fund business dealings with "U.N. Official 2," court papers said.
Park also allegedly told the government witness in 1997 or 1998 that he had invested about $1 million that he received from Iraq in a Canadian company established by the son of "U.N. Official 2," though the company failed and the money was lost.
The U.S. complaint calls for the arrest of Park, who was reported to be hiding in Tokyo and considering a U.S. plea bargain offer, according to South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo daily.
Isn't it amazing how much Kofi has forgotten in the last 12 months --- kinda like Hillary and her Rose law firm files and FBI files....give us a break.
amazing,, indeed.
selective amnesia happens a lot in NY and the UN.. Must be something in the water.
WARNING: UN cascade failure in progress!
Category 5 storm approaching for Kofi & Co. "The U.S. complaint calls for the arrest of Park, who was reported to be hiding in Tokyo and considering a U.S. plea bargain offer..."
ping
.
What will they think of next!?
btttt
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