UN: South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon speaks to media after his ratification as new U.N. Secretary-General

The United Nations General Assembly appointed South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon by acclamation on Friday (October 13) as the next U.N. secretary-general, a post he will assume on January 1, 2007. Ban, 62, is the first Asian leader since Burma's U Thant led the U.N. from 1961 to 1971. Asian nations had insisted it was their turn for the job to succeed Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian who has led the world body for the past decade. The approval of Ban as the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations since 1946 was welcomed by applause from diplomats and hundreds of U.N. staff. "I stand before you, deeply touched and inspired by the generous words of congratulations and encouragement. With boundless gratitude for the confidence praised in me my member states, and with an unswerving resolve to honor their trust, I humbly accept the appointment as the eighth secretary-general of this great organization, our United Nations," said Ban told the Assembly. The 15-member U.N. Security Council recommended Ban to the General Assembly as the next secretary-general after he comfortably beat six rivals in informal council polls. The General Assembly formally appointed him for a five-year term. Ban said he was committed to reforming the U.N., meeting U.N. Millennium Development Goals, expanding peace operations and dealing with threats posed by terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, HIV/AIDS and other pandemics, environmental degradation and the imperatives of human rights. "From the Balkans to Africa, from Asia to the Middle-East, we have witnessed the weakening or absence of effective governance leading to the ravaging of human rights and the abandonment of long-standing humanitarian principles," said Ban. "We need competent and responsible states to meet the needs of the peoples for whom the United Nations was created. And the world's people will not be fully served unless peace, development, and human rights, the three pillars of the United Nations, are advanced together with equal vigor." The low-key Ban will be a contrast to Annan, who in his first five years as secretary-general won a Nobel Peace Prize and was sometimes dubbed a diplomatic rock star, before financial scandals took over headlines in the past few years. Annan said that he had full confidence in Ban's abilities. Said Annan, "I think everyone here recognizes the depth of your experience, the breadth of your connections, and your ability to cooperate effectively at the highest levels. But as someone who has known and worked with you for several years, I think they will soon discover something else, something more, if they do not see it already. A future secretary-general that who is exceptionally attuned to the sensitivities of countries and constituencies on every continent. A man with a truly global mind at the helm of the world's only universal organization." Japan's U.N. Ambassador, and current Security Council President, Kenzo Oshima echoed Annan's sentiments. Said Oshima, "The asian countries are confident that the secretary-general designate, Mr. Ban, will contribute substantially to the further enhancement of the role and prestige of our organization, to the reforms of the organization, and straightening of the United Nations system" At a news conference, attended by a large group of reporters, Ban touched upon several key issues facing the United Nations, such as North Korea, the Middle East crisis and the ongoing reform in the world body. On North Korea's recent nuclear test, Ban emphasized the need for the international community to send out a "strong" and "clear" message. "This nuclear test is fundamentally different from a missile test and it is absolutely necessary that international community should again send out a very strong, a unified and clear message so that North Korea will not have any temptation to engage in any further negative activities which may aggravate the situation," said Ban. He also spoke on behalf of his country, saying that since the nuclear test by North Korea last week, South Korea has been clear that the issue should be dealt with swiftly and strongly. "We (South Korea) immediately supported the convening of the Security Council and we expressed our firm position that the Security Council should take the necessary action, so that international community should be able to send out a very strong and united message. That's the basic position of my government," said Ban. On United Nations reform, Ban said that the U.N. was overstretched but that he was determined to maintain the reform momentum. "Again, key reform ideas have faltered due to deep-seated mistrust among member states. Nevertheless, I am determined to keep up the reform momentum so we may build the twenty-first century Secretariat for a twenty-first century organization. The third is to enhance coherence and organization, the U.N. is simply too overstretched for the limited resources available. The cohesive (unclear) panel report is just out and they will be high level discussions to review the report in early November, The result may not be as ambitious as some had hoped but I do believe that there will be room for some realistic steps to reduce overlap and redundancies, to streamline work for greater efficiency and better use of resources and better service delivery," said Ban. Ban had earlier said that he had three priorities as the Secretary-General. One was being "effective and relevant in discharging our duties to coordinate all the agendas and challenges which we face in the 21st century." The second was to try "to bring trust and confidence among member states," and the third was "to ensure to consolidate and coordination among the organizations to use the limited resources and manpower for the utmost strength, trying to reduce the redundancies and overlappings." Ban will assume his post on January 1, 2007. He comfortably beat six rivals in informal polls the Security Council conducted. Born to a farming family in 1944, toward the end of the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula, Ban has moved inexorably up the ranks of the Foreign Ministry, which he joined in 1970 straight after university, where he graduated at the top of his class in international relations. Ban, who has been South Korea's foreign minister since January 2004, inherits a bureaucracy of 9,000 staff, a $5 billion budget and more than 90,000 peacekeepers in 18 operations around the globe that cost another $5 billion.

ITN Source | October 14, 2006

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