S Korea's UN candidate a popular career diplomat

SEOUL, Oct 3 (Reuters) The one thing everyone seems to agree on about Ban Ki-moon, South Korea's foreign minister and front-runner to be the next UN secretary general, is that he is very pleasant.

''He's a nice man. But some wonder if he is anything else.

Can he stand up to the real heat with the United States shouting in one ear and the Third World in the other?'' said one senior diplomat in Seoul.

Ban finished first in four informal polls of UN Security Council members since July and his selection is nearly assured.

The 15-member Council intends to hold an official poll later this month.

Born to a farming family in 1944 -- toward the end of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula -- he has moved inexorably up the ranks of the Foreign Ministry, which he joined in 1970 straight after university where he graduated top of his class in international relations.

An English speaker -- he took a master's degree in public administration at Harvard University -- Ban has held a number of posts focusing on UN issues and in 2001 became the chief of staff to Han Seung-soo, the General Assembly president.

His office says he also speaks French as well as some German and Japanese.

Ban was appointed foreign minister in January 2004.

''He is the hardest-working person at the ministry,'' said one South Korean diplomat. ''If you don't count his personal aide who has to be at his residence at 5:30 in the morning, that is.'' NOTHING PECULIAR Jang Sung-min, a former presidential aide and member of parliament who follows international relations closely, said of Ban: ''He probably won't do a bad job. It is really hard to think of a problem with Ban. Maybe that's his strong point -- that there's nothing peculiar about him.'' Diplomats say he is very popular within his ministry which also handles the trade affairs of South Korea, a country that has depended heavily on exports to lift it from the ruins of war in the early 1950s to rank as Asia's third biggest economy.

''You would be hard pushed to find someone who didn't like him personally,'' said one.

Ban became minister after political infighting between the presidential Blue House and the ministry over how closely to align Seoul to Washington cost his predecessor his job.

Analysts said he was seen as a man who would not ruffle feathers but had enough experience to handle the role of the country's top diplomat.

In New York, Ban pledged to play a more visible role in West Asia and other regional conflicts if elected.

He also made clear he would travel extensively and appoint a deputy to handle some of the every day management, somehow contradicting US Ambassador John Bolton's contention that a secretary-general had first to be an administrator.

A former senior South Korean diplomat, who has worked with him and asked not to be named, said of Ban: ''There's no question that he's shown commitment to the ideals and values of the United Nations.

''Whether he can put those ideals to work in an entirely different setting is a different question. But then, there's nobody who's done everything already.'' REUTERS LL HS1630