Ban Ki-moon takes over as UN Secretary-General.(United Nations General Assembly)(Brief article)

In October, the 192-member UN General Assembly named South Korea's Ban Ki-moon to succeed retiring UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is required to leave after 10 years at the helm of the world body. Ban left his post as foreign minister of his country and formally took the office on December 14. Pledged to a comprehensive plan to "reform" the world body, Ban is the UN's eighth secretary-general and the second from Asia. Earlier in his diplomatic career, he served in his country's mission to the UN and is no stranger to the organization.

In his October speech accepting the appointment, Ban referred to a predecessor, U Thant of Myanmar (formerly Burma), for having "ably served the world four decades ago." Thant, as is well-known to serious students of the world body, followed in the footsteps of his predecessors at the UN as an anti-American and pro-Soviet apologist. In 1970, Thant ...