Envoy to North Korea, Maurice Strong, Loses U.N. Post
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UNITED NATIONS – A Canadian businessman lost his job as the top U.N. envoy to North Korea amid questions about his connection to a suspect in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, the world body said yesterday.
The decision not to renew Maurice Strong’s contract follows criticism that he gave his stepdaughter a job at the United Nations and concerns over his ties to a South Korean businessman accused of accepting kickbacks from Saddam Hussein’s government.
A deputy U.N. spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said in response to a question that Mr. Strong’s contract expired last week “and it has not been renewed.” She gave no reason.
Mr. Strong’s office in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, said he was not there yesterday and no one else was available to comment.
Mr. Strong, who had been the U.N. point man on six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs, took temporary leave from his post on April 20 during a probe of his ties to businessman Tongsun Park.
The next day, his stepdaughter, Christina Mayo, resigned after a U.N. review discovered that she had worked at the United Nations for her stepfather for two years. U.N. staff regulations in most cases prohibit the hiring of immediate family members.
Mr. Park, a native of North Korea and citizen of South Korea, was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in April with allegedly accepting millions of dollars from Saddam’s government to lobby illegally for Iraq in America on behalf of the oil-for-food program.
Mr. Strong said Mr. Park had advised him on Korean issues, but he denied any involvement with the $64 billion humanitarian program in Iraq. He pledged to cooperate with an oil-for-food probe led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Prosecutors say Mr. Park met with an unidentified U.N. official in an apparent effort to influence the design of the oil-for-food program and invested $1 million in a company run by the official’s son. Mr. Strong acknowledged that Mr. Park invested money in a company run by his son, the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper has reported.
Mr. Strong had been involved in U.N. environment and development issues since 1970, and in January 1997, he was appointed a senior adviser to Secretary-General Annan on reforming the United Nations.
