googles mews - UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 13 — Ban Ki-moon, the foreign minister of South Korea, was appointed Friday by the General Assembly as the next secretary general of the United Nations, succeeding Kofi Annan.

Mr. Ban was approved by acclamation of the 192-member body and greeted by sustained applause as he walked onto the rostrum to make his acceptance speech.
He is to take the oath of office in mid-December and assume the job on Jan. 1, the day after Mr. Annan completes his two five-year terms. In his foreign service career, Mr. Ban has taken part in negotiations with North Korea, and said this month that he would like to go there once he becomes secretary general.
Mr. Ban, 62, will become the eighth secretary general in the 60-year history of the United Nations and the first Asian occupant of the office since U Thant of Burma stepped down in 1971.
Mr. Annan, 68, hailed his successor as “a man with a truly global mind at the helm of the world’s only universal organization.”
He recalled that the first man to hold the position, Trygve Lie, told his successor, Dag Hammarskjold, “You are about to take over the most impossible job on earth.”
Mr. Annan said, “While that may be true, I would say, ‘This is also the best possible job on earth.’ ”
Mr. Ban said he had appreciated the United Nations from his youth for the role the organization played in creating and rebuilding his war-torn country.
He also said he had been “pained by scenes of its failures” in his travels in recent years. “In too many places could I feel the dismay over inaction of the U.N., or action that was too little or came too late.”
He pledged, “I am determined to dispel the disillusionment.”
He listed his priorities as reforming the United Nations, meeting development goals established in 2000, establishing human rights, confronting threats posed by terrorism and unconventional weapons, slowing environmental degradation and curbing the spread of AIDS.
Under the United Nations Charter, the name of the new secretary general is chosen by the Security Council and sent to the General Assembly for appointment.
Mr. Ban defeated six other candidates for the job in four informal polls of the Council and was officially elected by the 15-member panel on Monday.
A veteran of three decades in his country’s foreign service, Mr. Ban is familiar with the United Nations, where he served as first secretary of the South Korean mission in the 1970’s and was chief assistant to Han Seung-soo, president of the General Assembly, in 2001.
He is a more retiring personality than Mr. Annan, who traveled the world as a global diplomat and made high-profile statements on the rule of international law.
In his speech, he asked that people understand his modest manner as a cultural attribute and not misread it as lack of decisiveness or passion.
“Asia is a region where modesty is a virtue,” he said.
“But the modesty is about demeanor,” he said, “not about vision and goals. It does not mean the lack of commitment or leadership. Rather it is quiet determination in action to get things done without so much fanfare.”