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Article: S. Korean foreign minister was unlikely candidate for top U.N. post: Ban Ki-moon believed he was the right man at right place, right time.(PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES)
- Article from:
- San Diego Business Journal
- Article date:
- October 23, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 CBJ, L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It's amazing how just a little bit of time (and more than a little competence) can alter the odds. If anyone had told you a year ago that the next U.N. secretary-general was going to be a Korean, you'd have quickly wagered against it.
Korea, after all, remains brutally divided, and peninsular tensions are today running high, so proposing a Korean national to replace the exiting Kofi Annan would have seemed a fool's gamble.
"A Korean is not going to be the head of the U.N.," a widely respected Japanese diplomat flatly predicted just six months ago. In fact, no one, Japanese or otherwise, would have bet much on that prospect either.
No one--that ...