[Editorial] Betting on a South Korean to head the U.N.

Korean foreign minister Ban Ki-moon has essentially secured his future as the next United Nations secretary-general by placing first in yet another informal poll. He still has to be approved by the Security Council and confirmed by the General Assembly, but the mood is one in which his election is already being treated as a given. We hope to see him stay alert and proactive until the very end, and to see the first-ever Korean U.N. secretary-general.

It was probably Ban's skill and polished demeanor, practiced over the course of a long diplomatic career, which allowed him to rise above the pack without a single opposing vote in the final preliminary poll. More importantly, it would seem, was recognition of South Korea's effort and experience in persistently pursuing peace and reconciliation in a country tragically divided in two. In fact, we lived in an era of such sharp division that it was only in 1991, some 43 years after the government of the Republic of Korea was established, that North and South Korea finally joined the U.N. as individual states. Currently, there are many concerns, like the North Korean nuclear issue, for example, that need to be resolved through dialogue, but Ban presented himself as someone qualified for the secretary-general position based, in part, on the leadership he has demonstrated in sensitive nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang.

His rise to front-runner might also be seen as a reflection of the international community's expectations of Korea, which in roughly 40 years rose from among the poorest of countries to become a major democracy with the world's 11th-largest economy. It was after the end of the Cold War that hope arose for the U.N. to be true to its mission of guaranteeing equal human rights for all and becoming the focal point in the effort to create a world with guaranteed peace and security. Those hopes were shattered, however, because of American high-handedness and the U.N.'s own issues of corruption and bureaucratization. The U.N. has actually lost much of its standing in the world, and there are strong calls for it to be reformed as an institution. Such is the situation when the international community seeks to share in the wisdom of a country that today is a middle power seeking to overcome the grief of being a divided and weak country and enter the ranks of fully advanced nations.

In some sense, Ban becoming secretary-general is even more than that: it is also a test and an opportunity for Korea. Now more than ever, the world needs to be based around more democratic international relations. Ban and Korea need to exhibit the kind of moral leadership that functions as a true go-between among major powers and small countries of the world, and work towards creating a democratic international order that is more fitting for the new century.