The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) says it will conduct an external audit into allegations that North Korea misused the agency's funds.

UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis told reporters Tuesday that a team led by former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth will launch the review, adding that it would complement an ongoing external audit by the U.N. Board of Auditors.

Dervis said Nemeth's team is expected to issue its final report by year's end.

The team will also look into the case of Artjon Shkurtaj, a former UNDP staffer in North Korea who claimed earlier this year that he was fired for blowing the whistle on the case.

Allegations of misappropriation first erupted in June of last year when U.S. diplomats raised suspicions that Pyongyang had used millions of dollars in UNDP aid for purposes other than national development, charges which the communist state denied.

Early this year, an internal audit of three U.N. agencies in the North found no proof of such U.S. claims but did find problems with "staff hiring, foreign currency transactions and access to local projects."

In March, UNDP suspended operations in North Korea after Pyongyang failed to meet operational changes endorsed and mandated by the agency's executive board.