Korea to Field Candidate for Top UN Post This Year

By Park Song-wu
January 19, 2006
The Korea Times
Original Source: http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200601/kt2006011917183510160.htm


South Korea is ``seriously'' thinking of fielding a candidate to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York on Wednesday. 
He stopped by the American city on his way to Washington, D.C. where he was to attend the inaugural ``strategic consultations'' between South Korea and the United States at the State Department on Thursday. 
``It is true that the (South) Korean government has been seriously considering the idea of presenting a Korean national as a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan,'' he said after a 45-minute meeting with the U.N.'s top diplomat from Ghana. 
Annan's second five-year term ends on Dec. 31. 
Ban declined to answer a question on the possibility of announcing his candidacy to fill the post, saying that Seoul has not yet made any official decision. 
But he said that the next secretary-general should come from Asia. ``I understand that there is a general consensus among the member states (of the United Nations) that it is Asia's turn,'' he said. 
The top U.N. post does not rotate, but there is wide expectation that the next official to fill it will come from Asia. 
Two Asian contenders have already declared their bids _ Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, who is backed by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Sri Lankan peace negotiator Jayantha Dhanapala. 
The only Asian to have been U.N. secretary-general was U Thant of Myanmar, who served from 1961 to 1971. 
Ban also held a meeting with John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who afterwards said that he has known Ban since the Korean diplomat was working in Washington and has ``a very high regard for him,'' according to the Associated Press. 
Bolton said they discussed a number of issues, and the next secretary-general ``was one of them,'' the wire news service reported. 
The U.N. secretary-general is appointed by the 191-nation General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. 
A candidate needs the approval of nine of the 15 council members and can be vetoed by any of the five permanent member states _ the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. 
A career diplomat with in-depth knowledge of the United Nations, Ban served as the nation's chief envoy to the world body from 2001 to 2003 and also acted as the chief secretary to former U.N. General Assembly president Han Seung-soo.