Who is Ban Ki-moon?
Unless you're Korean you may not be too familiar with the name Ban Ki-moon, but you will be seeing him all over your newspapers and TV screens very shortly. He is the man who looks set to take over from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"It would be hard to find someone who didn't like him," one South Korean diplomat said. Here's a little background on Ban, currently South Korea's foreign minister.
- Ban was born to a farming family in 1944, towards the end of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula. He joined the foreign ministry in 1970 straight after university where he graduated top of his class in international relations.
- He has a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University. Aside from English, he also speaks French as well as some German and Japanese, according to his office.
- Ban has lived in New Delhi, New York, Washington and Vienna during his career. He was chief of staff to Han Seung-soo, the General Assembly's president from 2001-02, and was appointed South Korea's foreign minister in January 2004.
- Diplomats say he's very popular within his ministry, which also handles the trade affairs of South Korea, Asia's third-biggest economy. He has played a key role in six party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.
- Ban says he will be pressing for reforms to make the United Nations "more effective, more efficient and more relevant" to tackling problems like terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and environmental degradation.
- He is by all accounts a very hard worker. His personal assistant turns up at 0530 in the morning to start working with him.
- With such a packed career he may not have time for too many hobbies, but Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer describes Ban as an old golfing buddy.
- Ban is married and has a son and two daughters.
Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Reuters.
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