UNDP open to reviving N. Korea office if conditions improve, chief says

The head of the United Nations Development Programme said Wednesday the agency would consider reopening its North Korea office if conditions improve, but stressed there are no immediate plans to return to a country from which it was expelled nearly two decades ago.

South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had previously disclosed UNDP's plans to resume North Korea operations in the first half of 2026 — a prospect De Croo pointedly declined to confirm. For Korean-American communities in Orange County with family or organizational ties to the peninsula, UNDP's cautious stance underscores continued uncertainty over international humanitarian access to the North.

UNDP first opened an office in Pyongyang in 1980 and operated in North Korea for nearly three decades, according to The Korea Times. That presence ended abruptly in March 2007 after allegations emerged that agency funds had been diverted to the North Korean government. Some activities resumed around 2010, but the COVID-19 pandemic again forced international humanitarian workers out of the country, and UNDP's last project there concluded in 2020.

"We (currently) don't have presence in North Korea. We used to have it, but we were asked to leave. As long as things don't change, there's no point for us to be there," UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo told The Korea Times. He added: "If things change, we'll have to look into it."

De Croo made the remarks during a trip to Seoul, where he attended the launch of the Global AI Hub, a joint initiative involving nine U.N. agencies. He cast artificial intelligence as a catalyst for development work, saying the technology "helps us to upscale people" and find faster solutions — while cautioning that it is "not putting food on the table" or building houses.

UNDP is also running R.E.V.I.V.E, a $64 million early recovery program supporting six countries affected by conflict or disaster, including Syria, Ukraine and Palestine. De Croo warned that ongoing conflicts risk erasing gains made over recent decades, saying "in September and October we are going to have problems with food supply."

The administrator highlighted South Korea's transformation from a war-devastated nation into one of the world's wealthiest economies as a model UNDP draws on. "Korea's story is an incredible success story," he said, according to The Korea Times. He noted that UNDP partners with South Korean companies, including Samsung, leveraging their supply chains and logistics capabilities in humanitarian operations.

The Seoul visit and De Croo's remarks come after South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated UNDP had planned to resume North Korean operations in the first half of 2026. His comments suggest that timeline remains on hold, contingent on changes in Pyongyang that show no sign of materializing.