Ban Ki-Moon informally chosen UN leader

 

UNITED NATIONS: South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon won Monday's crucial informal poll for the next United Nations secretary-general, with no opposition from any of the five veto-bearing council members.   

 

India's nominee Shashi Tharoor withdrew from the race.

 

He announced his withdrawal after the fourth straw poll in which a permanent member had cast negative vote against him, which would translate into a veto in a formal vote.

 

Tharoor has got 10 votes in favour, three against and two no opinions. In the three negative votes, one was by a permanent member.

 

He said he has sent a letter of congratulations to Moon on his success.

 

He also thanked the Indian government for nominating him for the coveted post.

 

The 15 Security Council ambassadors conducted an unofficial vote on seven candidates vying for the job to replace Kofi Annan, who leaves office on December 31.

 

It was the fourth informal poll and the first time ballots distinguished between the five veto-bearing nations and the other 10 elected members.   

 

An official vote is expected later in October, after which the winner's name goes to the 192-member General Assembly for approval.

 

It is quite clear from Monday's straw poll that minister Ban Ki-Moon is the candidate that the Security Council will recommend" to the General Assembly, China's UN envoy Wang Guangya told reporters.   

 

Qatari Ambassador Nasser al-Nasser said 14 of the Council's 15 members voted in favor of the South Korean foreign minister, while the 15th member cast a "no opinion" vote.

 

The one thing everyone seems to agree on about Moon, is that he is very pleasant.   

 

“He's a nice man. But some wonder if he is anything else. Can he stand up to the real heat with the United States shouting in one ear and the Third World in the other?” said a senior diplomat in Seoul.

 

Ban finished first in four informal polls of UN Security Council members since July and his selection is nearly assured.

 

The 15-member Council intends to hold an official poll later this month.   

 

Born to a farming family in 1944 -- toward the end of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula -- he has moved inexorably up the ranks of the foreign ministry, which he joined in 1970 straight after university where he graduated top of his class in international relations.   

 

An English speaker -- he took a master's degree in public administration at Harvard University -- Ban has held a number of posts focusing on UN issues and became South Korea's ambassador to the United Nations in 2001.   

 

His office says he also speaks French as well as some German and Japanese.   

 

Ban was appointed foreign minister in January 2004.    “He is the hardest-working person at the ministry,” said a South Korean diplomat. “If you don't count his personal aide who has to be at his residence at 5:30 in the morning, that is.”

 

Jang Sung-min, a former presidential aide and member of parliament who follows international relations closely, said of Ban: “He probably won't do a bad job. It is really hard to think of a problem with Ban. Maybe that's his strong point -- that there's nothing peculiar about him.”

 

Diplomats say he is very popular within his ministry which also handles the trade affairs of South Korea, a country that has depended heavily on exports to lift it from the ruins of war in the early 1950s to rank as Asia's third biggest economy.   

 

“You would be hard pushed to find someone who didn't like him personally,” said one.

 

Ban became minister after political infighting between the presidential Blue House and the ministry over how closely to align Seoul to Washington cost his predecessor his job.   

 

Analysts said he was seen as a man who would not ruffle feathers but had enough experience to handle the role of the country's top diplomat.   

 

In New York, Ban pledged to play a more visible role in the Middle East and other regional conflicts if elected.   

 

He also made clear he would travel extensively and appoint a deputy to handle some of the every day management, somehow contradicting US Ambassador John Bolton's contention that a secretary-general had first to be an administrator.   

 

A former senior South Korean diplomat, who has worked with him and asked not to be named, said of Ban: “There's no question that he's shown commitment to the ideals and values of the United Nations.   

 

“Whether he can put those ideals to work in an entirely different setting is a different question. But then, there's nobody who has done everything already.”

 

In its aggressive campaign on behalf of Moon, South Korea has offered "inducements ranging from tens of millions of pounds of extra funding for African countries to lucrative trade agreements in Europe -- and even the gift of a grand piano to Peru", The Times newspaper of London had earlier reported.

 

The other candidates in the race were Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, deputy premier in the ousted Thai government Surakiart Sathirathai, Jordan's UN ambassador Prince Zeid al-Hussein and Afghanistan's former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.

 

Sri Lankan diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala earlier withdrew from the race.