The UN Board of Auditors has handed in its report on the activities of the UN Development Programme, the UN Children's Fund and the UN Population Fund in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The Secretary-General has also received a copy.

The report does point to some of the difficulties UN Funds and Programmes have had in operating in DPRK. On independence of staff hiring, foreign currency transactions and access to local projects, the report identifies practices not in keeping with how the UN operates elsewhere in the world. It should be noted that the report does not indicate that large-scale UN funding has been systematically diverted, as has been alleged. However, the Secretary-General does expect the agencies to act upon the findings in the audit as quickly and transparently as possible.

As the report also indicates, there are a number of areas that the Secretary-General feels would require follow-up in a subsequent audit phase. The Secretary-General will write to the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on

Administrative and Budgetary Questions asking that the Committee consider requesting the Board of Auditors to continue their work, including a visit to the DPRK.

The Secretary-General had called for this audit in January 2007 as the top priority in a systematic world-wide probe of United Nations activities in the field. Today's report represents the first results of this on-going effort.

New York, 1 June 2007