Korean Connection Update

According to a recent federal criminal complaint, South Korean citizen Tongsun Park was the bag man who carried Saddam’s millions to U.N. officials. A growing body of evidence suggests that Park invested $1 million in a company set up by the son of Maurice Strong, the U.N. Special Envoy to North Korea. Park was born in North Korea and Strong has admitted to seeking his advice in the course of his special envoy duties. After exposure of the payments, Strong stepped aside on Wednesday. Park has also stated that Kofi Annan is on the fed’s list of targets.

There was one aspect to that connection that bothered me:

While the facts in this complaint certainly sound like a good fit between Maurice Strong (or someone very close to him) and U.N. Official #2, I can’t escape the logical inconsistency that the man simply doesn’t need the money. On the other hand, Maurice Strong seems to pursue influence like Robert Downey, Jr. pursues that last piece of crack he dropped between the sofa cushions . . . .

But according to this report in the Canada Free Press, you may consider that logical inconsistency neatly resolved:

The Canadian company that Saddam Hussein invested a million dollars in belonged to the Prime Minister of Canada, canadafreepress.com has discovered. Cordex Petroleum Inc., launched with Saddam’s million by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s mentor Maurice Strong’s son Fred Strong, is listed among Martin’s assets to the Federal Ethics committee on November 4, 2003.

Among Martin’s Public Declaration of Declarable Assets are: “The Canada Steamship Lines Group Inc. (Montreal, Canada) 100 percent owned”; “Canada Steamship Lines Inc. (Montreal, Canada) 100 percent owned””“Cordex Petroleums Inc. (Alberta, Canada) 4.6 percent owned by the CSL Group Inc.”

Yesterday, Strong admitted that Tongsun Park, the Korean man accused by U.S. federal authorities of illegally acting as an Iraqi agent, invested in Cordex, the company he owned with his son, in 1997.

Cordex is now defunct and its assets scattered in other places. This could explain a few things. Strong wouldn’t need the money, nor his son, but a politician would. And by being the guy who could deliver money from various sources–notwithstanding any statutory limits on person contributions that I suspect Canada, like the U.S. might have–Strong had the potential to buy plenty of infuence. I wonder if Paul Martin had the slightest idea where the money came from.

Paul Martin’s government had already been besieged by another scandal. This could well lead to the fall of his government and the rise of the separatists in Quebec.

The obvious lesson here: do not trust guys named “Maurice.”

UPDATE: Canada’s National Post has more on Maurice Strong’s remarkable influence within both Canada’s Liberal Party and the United Nations. The man is one part Svengali, one part Ted Turner, and one part Goldfinger. His views are not what most of us would call “mainstream.” Yes, I know. Pot, meet kettle.

UPDATE 2: The Washington Post isn’t particularly good at disguising its editorials as news, not even those with which I happen to agree. This one seems to be suggesting that Kofi Annan should resign. It reads like an intervention.