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| Ban Ki-Moon and North Korea |
| How is the communist North viewing South Korean's appointment? |
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Hyejin Kim (mine1004)  |
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Published 2006-10-18 08:48 (KST) |
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Ban Ki-Moon, the current South Korean foreign minister, has been named the next United Nations secretary-general. Since Mr. Ban became a candidate for the position, the South Korean media has scrambled to print reports on who he is and what he has accomplished. The appointment of the "English genius," as he has been dubbed in South Korea, has certainly excited the country. A celebration was held in his hometown, where the government plans to renovate Mr. Ban's birth place.
The selection of the next U.N. secretary-general coincided with an escalation in tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. How will the appointment of a South Korean influence the U.N.'s ability to reduce hostilities arising from the North Korean nuclear problem? Will a South Korean have more or less leverage when dealing with North Korea?
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| And what has been North Korea's response to Mr. Ban's appointment?
At a lunch meeting with South Korean politicians on Oct. 11, Mr. Ban joked, "Maybe North Korea did not want me to be elected. When they held the missile test it was during the primary poll. On the 9th of this month, the decision date, they pushed forward with the nuclear test in the early morning," Seoul Sinmun reported on Oct. 15.
South Korean media have followed the responses from North Korea. SBS, a major South Korean broadcaster, reported that North Korea appeared unhappy about the result. They focused on the absence of North Korea's U.N. ambassador Park Gil-yon when Mr. Ban delivered his acceptance speech at the U.N. assembly last Friday. While South Korean media and Mr. Ban himself assume North Korea may be upset, the North Korean media has been quiet. The North Korean media seems still not to have reported Mr. Ban's appointment.
Gordon Flake, executive director of the Mansfield Foundation, especially emphasized that North Korea has not broadcasted Mr. Ban's election as secretary-general. He pointed out that North Korea will not welcome his role as the head of the most powerful international organization on the Korean peninsula issue, according to an interview with Hankyoreh Newspaper on Oct. 10.
What does Pyongyang think of Mr. Ban? Victor-Yves Ghebali, a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, said in his interview in swissinfo on Oct. 13, that one reason why he was appointed was his nationality. He warned that if people think he will be able to handle the North Korean crisis because he is Korean, they are mistaken. He explained that North Korea dislikes South Korea as much as it does the United States, so having a South Korean atop the U.N. will not help matters on the Korean peninsula.
Besides shaping the future of the U.N., it is clear that Mr. Ban will be intimately involved in reducing tensions over North Korea. His background as a South Korean gives him special views into the North Korean issue, but his actions and decisions will need to be cautious enough to reflect the impartiality of a U.N. head.
Mr. Ban himself announced that he will work to support the resumption of the six-party talks. He also emphasized, in an interview with France's Le Monde on Oct. 16, that he is willing to travel to North Korea as a mediator in the nuclear crisis and hold negotiations with Kim Jong-Il. On the other hand, he did not forget to mention that there are other urgent international issues, North Korea would not receive undue priority.
South Korea is preparing for a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice next week. She will attempt to rally South Korea, China, and Japan against North Korea, and she wants to receive answers to how the South Korean government will deal with North Korea. Mr. Ban, the current foreign minister, will meet with her. The U.S. thinks that South Korea should stop joint projects with North Korea, including the Kaesong Industrial Zone and Mt. Geumgang tourism business due to potential use of earnings for weapons development.
Will Mr. Ban's position in the U.N. further isolate North Korea? Or will he be able to open a bridge between North Korea and international society? How will the South Korean government manage issues related to North Korea with the U.N. under Ban? Will Ban, like pessimists say, be merely a servant to strong powers in the U.N.? Answers to these questions may start to appear even before he takes office next January.
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©2006 OhmyNews
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