Ban Ki-moon - who is it? His name often sounds on television in news releases. He was a South Korean diplomat and politician, led the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country in 2004-2006. Well, today Ban Ki-moon - who is it? Since the beginning of 2007, he became the eighth UN Secretary General and continues to hold this position to the present.
Ban Ki-moon: biography
His nationality is Korean. As you know, now it is a divided people living in two states - North and South Korea. In which of Korea was Ban Ki-moon born? His biography began in 1944 in the central part of South Korea, near the city of Chungju, when all this then still united country was ruled by the Japanese empire. Pan's father was a merchant, had his own warehouse. As a child, he had to experience the horrors of the Korean War, when the Pan family was forced to flee, fleeing the North Korean army.
How did Ban Ki-moon continue to live? His biography turned out to be closely related to the United States. In high school, he was the best student in learning English. To practice conversational practice, the boy often walked 10 km to the local factory, where American specialists worked. His success was confirmed when in 1962 he won a language competition and traveled to the United States for several months, where he also met with President John F. Kennedy. It was then that Pan decided to become a diplomat.
What did Ban Ki-moon do to realize his dream? His biography continued at the University of Seoul, which he graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in international relations. Later, already a diplomat, he studied at the school to them. Kennedy, located at Harvard University, who graduated in 1985 with a master's degree in public administration.
How did Ban Ki-moon begin his diplomatic career? His biography in the diplomatic field began during the military dictatorship of Park Jung Hee (until 1979) and continued during the reign of President Chun Doo-hwan (1980-1988), who seized power after the military coup. Pan spent almost all of his long diplomatic career abroad, which allowed him to be on the side of the ups and downs of internal Korean politics.
Career ladder
In which countries did Ban Ki-moon work? His biography as a diplomat dates back to 1972, when he took the post of vice consul in New Delhi. Two years later, he was appointed first secretary to the Permanent Observer Mission of his country to the UN (South Korea until 1991 was not a member of the UN, but had the status of permanent observer). In November 1980, he was appointed head of the UN department at the South Korean Foreign Ministry. In 1987 and again in 1992, he was appointed to the embassy in Washington, and between these appointments served as the Foreign Ministry’s general manager for American affairs.
From 1993 to 1994, Pan was the deputy ambassador of South Korea to the United States.
In 1995, he was appointed deputy minister for policy planning and international relations, and the following year became the chief adviser to the South Korean president on national security issues.
Conflict with the USA and dismissal from service
He became ambassador to Austria and Slovenia in 1998, and a year later was also elected chairman of the commission working on the preparation of a treaty providing for a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing. In the course of this work, Pan, as he himself believes, made the biggest mistake in his career, namely, he signed an open letter from an international group of diplomats urging that the ABM treaty be saved shortly after the United States withdraws from this treaty. To avoid US anger, Ban Ki-moon was fired by President Kim Dae-jung, who also issued a public statement apologizing for the actions of the South Korean diplomat.
Resumption of diplomatic service
Thus, at the beginning of the new millennium, Pan turned out to be an unemployed diplomat and was awaiting appointment to a remote and unimportant embassy. But in 2001, during the 56th session of the UN General Assembly, at which South Korea presided, to Pan's surprise, he was elected Chief of Staff of the President of the Assembly Han Seung-soo. In 2003, the newly elected president, No Moo-hyun, removed the ban on the profession from Pan and appointed him as one of his foreign policy advisers.
New take-off and peak career
In January 2004, Ban became Minister for Foreign Affairs under President No Moo Hyun. In September 2005, he played an important role in the so-called six-party talks in Beijing on the North Korean nuclear issue. After that, in January 2006, his government nominated Pan as a candidate for the election of a new UN Secretary General. He was elected to this post on October 13, 2006 by the UN General Assembly. On November 1, 2006, he resigned from his post as head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry, and on December 14, 2006, the new UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, took the oath.
Activities at a major international diplomatic post
How did the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon prove himself after being elected? At his first press conference on January 2, 2007, he did not condemn (contrary to the expectations of many) the execution of Saddam Hussein three days earlier and stated that the issue of using the death penalty as a punishment for criminal offenses is a matter for each particular country. Pan was criticized for this position. With this in mind, he said two weeks later in his speech in Washington that a growing trend in international law and domestic politics and practice is the phasing out of the death penalty.
On March 22, 2007, he barely escaped death from a terrorist attack in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Only 50 meters from the building in which the UN Secretary General spoke, a rocket exploded, leaving a funnel with a diameter of 1 m. His arrival was strictly secret, therefore it is assumed that the terrorists had an informant. To date, no terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for this attack.
In an interview with German media in July 2007 on the split in the UN over the legality of the US military operation in Iraq, Ban Ki-moon said: "We must appreciate this contribution of the United States to solving the Iraq problem." This was interpreted as a step away from harsh criticism of US actions by his predecessor Kofi Annan.
Pan visited the Darfur region in 2007 during the Sudanese crisis. After a visit to the refugee camp, he was shocked by what he saw.
Ban Ki-moon became the first UN Secretary General to attend the mourning ceremony on August 6, 2010 on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. For the first time, the US ambassador was also there. The day before the ceremony, Ban Ki-moon met with the survivors of the nuclear explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and called for the renunciation of all nuclear weapons at this meeting so that their use would be impossible in principle.
In June 2011, his candidacy was approved by the UN General Assembly for the post of General Secretary for a second term, and on January 01, 2012, Ban Ki-moon again officially took this post. A photo of him relating to this period is presented below.
His second term was marked by large-scale crises in the Arab world. Unfortunately, the efforts made by the UN special envoys appointed by the Secretary-General for Syria have not been crowned with success. On the issue of the crisis in Ukraine, the UN has not taken an active position, at least so far no noticeable initiative has been heard of it.
Ban Ki-moon: personal life
He has been married for 40 years to his former classmate Yu Sung Taek, whom he met at school back in 1962, and has one son and two daughters. He speaks English, French, Italian, German and Japanese.