Ban ready to take on 'most impossible job'

Seoul, Nov 10: South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon ended 37 years of diplomatic service today, saying his new post as chief of the United Nations was the ''most impossible job''.

In a rare, emotional speech to a crowd of diplomats, Ban said he was leaving with some regrets, especially not seeing through the resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Ban was picked over six rivals in October to take over as UN secretary-general from Ghana's Kofi Annan in January. He heads to New York on Wednesday to begin work on the transition.

''I will be on my way to face the challenge of doing, as they say, the most impossible job,'' Ban said at a farewell event in which the seasoned diplomat was unusually frank.

''I feel as if I'm being thrown on an uninhabited island all by myself.'' Ban is renowned for his understated composure.

A career diplomat who graduated at the top of his class in international relations from Seoul National University, Ban is only the second Asian to head the United Nations.

He became foreign minister in January 2004 and has been closely involved in his country's dealings with North Korea and international efforts to settle the nuclear crisis with Pyongyang's Korean communist government.

Ban was at the centre of intense behind-the-scene diplomacy in New York that led to a 2005 agreement-in-principle for Pyongyang to eliminate its nuclear weapons programme in return for aid and better ties with the world.

But as Ban spent more time on the campaign to become UN chief, North Korea stymied efforts to implement the agreement by refusing to return to the negotiating table, labelling a US financial crackdown as an act of hostility.

North Korea began calling itself a nuclear state, conducted its first nuclear test in October but said three weeks later that it would return to six-country talks.

Ban said North Korea would remain his top priority after taking office at the United Nations, adding: ''I will be using my mandate as UN secretary-general to the maximum to make sure that this issue is resolved thoroughly.'' Ban also said he faced the ''fearful and daunting'' tasks of trying to ''tackle regional conflicts, terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction'' as well as lead internal reforms in the United Nations.

Ban also expressed support for his successor Song Min-soon, who was instrumental in drawing up last year's North Korean nuclear agreement and was President Roh Moo-hyun's chief national security adviser.

''I leave with full confidence in him,'' he said. ''He's served with me in the same line of work in the past 20 years.''

Reuters