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Warning. This is a very low volume ping list. No responsibility is implied if the ping is too late.
Normally I use this list for the more sarcastic side of things, but I figured I better direct you all to this.
I am most sincerely dead - thanks for the ping!
OH, the timing . . .
South Korean won't need to look far for first crisis as U.N. chief
By Choe Sang-Hun and Martin Fackler The New York Times
Published: October 8, 2006
SEOUL, South Korea Ban Ki-moon, the soft-spoken South Korean foreign minister, has spent much of his 35-year career steering his country between its biggest ally, the United States, and its biggest threat, North Korea. Now, on the eve of his confirmation as the next United Nations secretary general, he is preparing to take on the North Korea portfolio on behalf of the world.
With North Korea threatening to test a nuclear weapon, the next secretary general could face an early challenge to help defuse a standoff and coax North Korea to return to the bargaining table. He would also be called on to mend estranged relations with the United States, the largest donor to the United Nations, which have grown more strained with the war in Iraq.
Mr. Ban would become the second Asian to lead the United Nations, at a time when China's global influence is rising, and Japan, Asia's largest economic power, wants to raise its international profile by gaining a permanent seat on the Security Council. The last Asian secretary general was U Thant of Burma, the nation now called Myanmar. He served from 1961 to 1971.
So far, Mr. Ban has been characteristically reserved about disclosing what he might do as secretary general. He has said, though, that he would try to play a more vocal role than the current secretary general, Kofi Annan, in trying to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear program. He has also said he may depart from his predecessor's path by engaging North Korea in personal diplomacy.
"I plan to go to North Korea as soon as I get the chance," Mr. Ban, who is 62, was quoted as saying last Tuesday by the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. "Secretary General Kofi Annan has never visited North Korea during his 10-year term."
. . .
Mr. Ban would also take over an organization reeling from criticism over mismanagement of the oil-for-food program in Iraq, reported sexual misconduct by peacekeepers and accusations of opaque and inefficient financial practices.
(continued at link)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/09/asia/web.1009ban.php
Thanks, Cougar. Sorry you had to use this ping list.
Thanks Cougar...keep me on it.