Text 5: Current Secretary-General of the United Nations

1. Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean diplomat and the current Secretary-General of the United Nations. He succeeded Kofi Annan in this capacity on January 1, 2007.

2. Ban was the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea from January 2004 to November 1, 2006. On October 13, 2006, he was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations General Assembly and was sworn in on January 1, 2007.

3. Ban was born in Eumseong, a small farming village in North Chungcheong, in 1944, when Korea was controlled by Japan. Ban was raised in Chungju, a nearby town. Ban's father had a warehouse business, but the warehouse went bankrupt and the family lost its middle-class standard of living. When Ban was 6, his family fled to a remote mountainside for the duration of the Korean War.

4. After the war Ban's family returned to Chungju. The U.S. military troops in Korea were the first Americans Ban ever met. Ban was the oldest of six children, and in school he became a star pupil, particularly in his studies of English. In 1956, he was selected by his class to address a message to then U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, but it is unknown if the message was ever sent. In 1962, Ban won an essay contest sponsored by the Red Cross and earned a trip to the United States. As part of the trip, Ban met U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Ban claimed the visit to the White House inspired his public career When asked by a journalist at the meeting what Ban wanted to be when he grew up, Ban reportedly said "I want to become a diplomat."

5. Ban received a bachelor's degree in International Relations from Seoul National University in 1970 and earned a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1985. After entering South Korea's foreign service in 1970, he served as counselor to the embassy in Washington, D.C. (1987–90), director of American affairs at the Foreign Ministry (1990–92), deputy foreign minister (1995–96), and national security adviser to the president (1996–98). Following a stint as ambassador to Austria (1998–2000), Ban returned to Seoul as vice-minister of foreign affairs (2000–01). In 2003 he became foreign policy adviser to the new president, Roh Moo Hyun. As minister of foreign affairs and trade from 2004 to 2006, Ban played a key role in the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea.

6. Ban's UN experience began in 1975 when he became a staff member of the UN division of the Foreign Ministry in Seoul. In the late 1970s, when South Korea had only observer status, Ban was posted to the South Korean mission to the UN. In 1999 he served as chairman of the preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization. Ban also led the cabinet of the president of the UN General Assembly during South Korea's tenure of the rotating presidency in 2001–02, the critical period following the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

7. On Oct. 13, 2006, just days after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon, Ban was named UN secretary-general-elect. Ban succeeded Kofi Annan on Jan. 1, 2007, becoming the first Asian to serve as UN secretary-general since Burmese statesman U Thant held the office (1962–71). Ban faced a number of challenges, including the North Korean and Iranian nuclear threats, troubles in the Middle East, and the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of The Sudan. Reform of the UN itself was also a major issue.

8. Ban Ki-moon married Yoo Soon-taek in 1971. They are still married and have two daughters and a son. In addition to his native Korean, Ban speaks English, French, Japanese and German, according to his curriculum vitae. However, there have been questions on the extent of his knowledge of French, one of the two working languages of the United Nations. This has resulted in some controversy.

9. He is not a member of any church or religious group.

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