Next UN chief plans to appoint NKorean envoy

London, Oct 17: Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea, the next Secretary-General of the United Nations, said in a newspaper interview he planned to appoint a special envoy to North Korea, a post that has been vacant for 18 months.

Speaking to the Times in comments published today, Ban also said he was thinking about choosing a female deputy Secretary General to replace outgoing Malloch Brown.

''I intend to have my own special envoy who will be assisting me and will engage in talks with North Koreans, who will facilitate the resolution of Korean Peninsula issues, when I assume (office),'' Ban said.

''Somebody who would have experience and knowledge about Korean Peninsula issues and somebody who would be acceptable, be able to have dialogue with South and North Korea, particularly North Korea,'' he told the newspaper.

The comments came after Pyongyang announced on October 9 it had conducted a nuclear test, throwing the region into crisis.

Outgoing UN chief Kofi Annan's special advisor for North Korea, Maurice Strong, withdrew from his duties in April 2005 amid investigations about his ties to a suspect in Iraq's scandal-tainted oil-for-food programme.

Ban reiterated a desire to focus more on North Korea than his predecessor, Annan, who never visited the country during his time at the helm of the United Nations.

''It's quite natural that I will pay more attention and more priority on this issue, because I'm coming from Korea (and) because I'm going to work as Secretary General,'' he said.

Ban, who is South Korea's Foreign Minister, said he was ready to travel to North Korea himself.

''I hope they will have no objection to my visit to North Korea.

I am the same Korean as they are. As a secretary general coming from South Korea, it would be much better for North Korea if they would really be sincerely interested in resolving this issue,'' he was quoted in the Times as saying.

Turning to the appointment of the deputy secretary general, Ban said: ''I'm pretty much inclined to have some very able, qualified woman for the post of DSG.'' Ban comfortably beat six rivals last Friday to win the UN Security Council's nomination to succeed Annan, a Ghanaian who has led the world body since 1997.

REUTERS