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Top UN aide steps aside during oil-for-food probe
 Canadian Maurice Strong, an influential entrepreneur, withdrew as UN envoy for Korea on Wednesday while investigators probed his ties to a lobbyist suspected of bribing UN officials with Iraqi funds. Strong, who has served in a variety of UN posts since 1947, was a part-time adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the six-party talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. "He is suspending himself with the secretary-general's approval," Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief of staff, said in an interview with two journalists. "Given the controversy, I think he's doing absolutely the right thing." Some diplomats said Strong acted only after senior UN officials suggested he resign. Annan was also considering a policy that would force part-time employees like Strong to disclose their finances to avoid conflicts of interest, Malloch Brown said. Only full-time staff now have to do so. Known worldwide for his work on the environment, Strong, 76, acknowledged this week he had business dealings in 1997 "on a normal commercial basis" with the lobbyist and businessman Tongsun Park, a South Korean born in North Korea. Posted by: Fred 2005-04-22 |
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