MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ban Ki-moon running for a second term as UN Secretary General

The Korean diplomat in reality needs the support from the Security Council’s five permanent members

Ban Ki-moon formally asked the UN Security Council to support his candidacy for a second five-year term as UN secretary-general, according to a letter. His first term ends December 31 and so far is unopposed.

Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, already had received assurances of support from the United States and other key members of the UN Security Council, diplomats said in March, making his re-election all but certain.

“As I approach the end of my term of office as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, I am humbly submitting my name for the consideration of the members of the Security Council for a second term,” said Ban Ki-moon's letter to Gabon's UN Ambassador Nelson Messone, this month's president of the council.

Ban Ki-moon said in his 4 and half years as the UN chief he and the 15-nation council had ”found common ground on critical global issues of peace and security – from Somalia to Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East and far beyond.“

”I am proud of all we have done together, even as I am mindful of the formidable challenges ahead,” he wrote.

Speaking Monday to reporters at UN headquarters, Ban Ki-moon cited his push to make climate change a top concern for governments around the world as one of his major accomplishments since he took the helm of the world body in January 2007.

Officially, UN secretaries-general are elected by the 192-nation UN General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. In reality, it is the five permanent veto-wielding council members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – that decide who gets the job.

The decision by the five is then rubber-stamped by the full council and the assembly, –diplomats said. The formal re-election process for Ban Ki-moon should be over by the end of June, they added.