UN looks to Ban of few words

Just as the race to succeed the Secretary-General of the United Nations has been discreet and mostly free of public drama, so a front-runner has emerged who is best known for his mild manner.

Meet Ban Ki Moon, the self-effacing Foreign Minister of South Korea.

He has risen to the top of a field of seven candidates for arguably the toughest public service job in the world, thanks to his reputation as a skilled behind-the-scenes mediator and resolute manager.

His victory appears all but assured after a final informal poll of the 15 envoys on the Security Council. Ban, who is 62 and a graduate of Harvard, won 14 "encourage" votes and only one "no opinion". Most importantly, he won nods from all of the veto-wielding permanent members.

Final congratulations are expected to come next Monday, when the Security Council is set to formally ask Ban to lead an organisation with 9000 workers, a US$2 billion ($3.04 billion) budget and the scars of recent scandals, notably in the now defunct Iraqi oil-for-food programme.

His appointment for a first five-year term will then be handed to the General Assembly for its approval, which is seen as a mere formality.

Among those disappointed is Shashi Tharoor, who served with Annan as an assistant secretary-general.

Championed by his native India, Tharoor, 50, withdrew after Tuesday's poll acknowledging that Ban's position was unassailable.

"It is a great honour and a huge responsibility to be secretary-general," he said. "And I wish Mr Ban every success in that task."

There has long been a tacit understanding in the council that the eighth Secretary-General of the UN would come from Asia. The last Asian to lead the body was Burma's U Thant, who left office in 1971.

For South Korea, the selection of Ban holds some historical satisfaction. The country, after all, owes its existence to the UN, which established its border in 1948 and provided troops to defend it during the Korean War.

"We Koreans have quite literally risen from the ashes of war," he said.

Ban, who was born in the rural town of Chungju in 1944 and is married to his childhood sweetheart, has nurtured ambitions to be a global diplomat since his teens.

His story began when aged 18 he found himself selected by the international Red Cross to travel to the United States where he was taken to theWhite House and introduced to the then American President, John F. Kennedy.

Already he knew his calling and later studied international relations at Seoul University before attending the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

His career has meanwhile been threaded through with connections both to the US and the UN.

Before becoming Foreign Minister in 2004, he served as chief aide to the President of the UN's General Assembly, also from South Korea, for one year after September 2001.

Among their first challenges was crafting the UN's response to the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.

That Ban is considered a close ally of Washington is no secret and he enjoyed the firm backing during the polling process of the US envoy to the UN, Ambassador John Bolton.

"The United States is very pleased with the outcome," Bolton said on Tuesday.

Closeness to the US can bring peril to a Secretary-General, however, and Ban can be expected to downplay its significance.

In London, the Foreign Office also expressed quiet approval.

"We are very happy with him coming through," a senior British official said yesterday.

Less certain is the view of France, which normally insists that a Secretary-General speaks fluent French.

The charisma deficit may yet prove a problem for a man whose job includes being a voice for peace on the world stage.

Insiders say that when he speaks publicly, Ban can be halting and relies on prepared notes.

Yet he has publicly insisted in recent days that his external demeanour can be deceiving.

"I may look soft from the outside, but I have inner strength when it's really necessary," he said.

"I have always been very decisive."

Speaking yesterday, he signalled that pressing forward with UN reform and streamlining its bureaucracy would be a first priority.

"I will try to change the whole mind-set of the United Nations Secretariat," he said, adding that he would work first to "restore the confidence of the United Nations".

From rural upbringing to international politics

* Ban Ki Moon 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 - towards the end of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula.

* He graduated top of his class at university in international relations. He also took a master's degree in public administration at Harvard University.

* He speaks English and French as well as some German and Japanese.

* He has moved inexorably up the ranks of the Foreign Ministry since joining in 1970.

* He has held a number of posts focusing on UN issues and became the chief of staff to Han Seung-soo, the General Assembly president in 2001.

* He was appointed Foreign Minister in January 2004.

* 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.

- INDEPENDENT