10 October 2006
The Security Council of the United Nations has unanimously chosen South Korea's foreign minister Ban Ki-moon as its only nominee to be the next secretary-general of the UN for a five year term. The incumbent Kofi Annan steps down at the end of the year. The nomination now goes to the UN General Assembly for formal approval, but Ban is expected to be endorsed by a majority of the 192 member states of the United Nations. John Bolton, the US ambassador at the United Nations, said, ''It is really quite an appropriate juxtaposition that today, 61 years after the temporary division of the Korean Peninsula at the end of World War II, that we are electing a foreign minister of South Korea secretary-general of this organization and meeting, as well, to consider the testing by the North Koreans of a nuclear device.'' North Korea on Wednesday carried out a nuclear bomb explosion, a move that was strongly condemned by the Security Council, which is now considering imposing sanctions on the regime in Pyongyang.
