U.N. anti-poverty program cleared

Auditors for the United Nations said they found no evidence that a U.N. anti-poverty program in North Korea knew of any counterfeiting, money laundering or other improper financial dealings linked to the world body’s money.

U.N. Development Program Administrator Kemal Dervis told reporters he would consider recommending to his agency’s executive board that it return to working in the hard-line communist country, from which the agency withdrew in March 2007.

The audit panel said it could verify that more than three-quarters of nearly $24 million in agency spending between 1999 and 2007 had been proper. It recommended tightening some financial procedures.