Ban Ki Moon’s ‘Quiet Diplomacy’ Fails the North Korean People and the U.N., Again

Not only is the UNDP scandal  not going away, it’s confirming how little has changed with both the U.N. and Ban Ki Moon.  For the U.N., corruption and cronyism still triumph over accountability.  For Ban, the fear of offending Kim Jong Il and of controversy in general to be the guide that principle and promises of reform aren’t.   A pattern emerges in which (1) Ban is confronted with U.N. inefficiency and corruption; (2) Ban promises bold reforms; (3) Ban engages in “quiet diplomacy” that we later learn accomplished nothing  (But  what do you people  know?  It’s too quiet for you!).

Yesterday, I passed along a report that  “[t]he U.N. ethics office found evidence that the United Nations Development Program retaliated against an employee who tried to expose its alleged wrongdoing in North Korea,  a letter leaked on Monday said.”   Today, I am bumping that item up into its own post to highlight Claudia Rosett’s latest piece on the subject.   Now, we can  learn how  the UNDP can  assert  — accurately —  that the U.N. Ethics Office has no jurisdiction to investigate the UNDP, an organization whose annual budget of $5 billion is twice that of the Secretariat:

But it also turns out that the UNDP, which has no ethics office of its own, is refusing to recognize the “jurisdiction” of the U.N. Secretariat’s Ethics Office. Benson discussed this in his memo, urging the UNDP’s Kemal Dervis to reverse course and abide by the advice of the Ethics Office, and allow a U.N. investigation to go forward into whether Shkurtaj was sacked — wrongly — for following U.N. ethics guidelines promulgated on Dec. 19, 2005, which state that it is the “duty” of staff members to report any breach of U.N. rules, and that any staffer who does so in good faith has “the right to be protected against retaliation.

The UNDP won’t play ball. A UNDP official says the agency is making its own arrangements for a “complementary external review,” that would cover both its North Korea operations and Shkurtaj’s allegations, and that there will be a board meeting to discuss the matter this Thursday, August 23. That’s not much comfort. This is the same board that is not allowed by UNDP management to see the UNDP’s own internal audits, and whose 36 members include not only the U.S. (which has been trying to clean up the UNDP), but such ethics-challenged governments as those of China, Russia, Belarus, Algeria, Kazakhstan, and North Korea itself.

At the U.N. Secretariat, this intra-U.N. stand-off led to a bizarre series of exchanges at Monday’s noon press briefing, in which reporters tried to find out what Ban plans to do about the UNDP’s rejection of the “jurisdiction” of the U.N. Secretariat’s Ethics Office. According to U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas, this turf problem was news to Ban himself, and he is now “examining” the Ethics memo.

I doubt that Ban is as detached from such matters as he claims to be.  We speak of a man for whom feigning ignorance of evil  is habitual  and whose word means nothing:

Last fall the U.S. Mission to the U.N. began trying to pry information from the UNDP about its strange and secretive doings in North Korea. When damning details surfaced in January, Ban promised a system-wide audit of the U.N., and an audit within three months of the UNDP in North Korea. Ban then reneged. The system-wide audit was postponed — apparently forever. In March, with the North Korean government refusing to accept stricter practices for UNDP operations in the country, the UNDP closed its office in Pyongyang. But instead of shipping all its records immediately out of the country, the UNDP stored some at the Pyongyang offices of the U.N. World Food Program.

And though the U.N. appears to have no problem rushing emergency teams into North Korea in response to Kim’s latest demands for flood aid, the U.N. has been strangely incapable of getting auditors into the country.

The reaction of his mouthpiece is classic:

“The secretary-general’s strength — you should know it by now — is one of diplomacy, of quiet diplomacy.

If that is  so, then let’s take stock of just what Ban Ki Moon’s quiet diplomacy has ever accomplished.  If Ban wishes to redeem the value of his quiet diplomacy — and the costly  bureaucracy he leads — let him apply it to closing Camp 22 forever.

See also:

*  Five North Korean refugees have entered the Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi, seeking asylum in South Korea.

*  There are some mildly encouraging signs of transparency in a new World Food Program emergency  relief operation in the North, following the floods there:

The WFP said visits by its own assessment teams to 11 counties in two provinces have confirmed the extent of the losses there, adding that more visits would be made.  [….]

“The flooding in the DPRK is serious. WFP has worked out satisfactory arrangements with the government so that we can provide emergency food aid to hundreds of thousands of people who need our help,” said Tony Banbury, WFP’s regional director for Asia.

The agency said the government had “indicated its acceptance” of monitoring visits by WFP staff to ensure food reaches the needy.  [Channel News Asia]

I’d only say that it merits watching.  Given the track records of all involved, you can’t conclude much without knowing more details.

*  Front-runner Lee Myung Bak again shifts his position on North Korea, in a favorable direction: 

“I think we have to (provide support) within the humanitarian boundary,” Lee told a group of reporters at his office in Seoul. “Basic economic cooperation is difficult to carry out, but humanitarian aid must go on.”  [Yonhap]

So can we forget the Kaesong Archipelago, then?