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| Ban Ki-moon (Image: Wiki Commons) |
by Yoo Seungki
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing United Nations secretary general whose second five-year term is slated to end by the year-end, has entered a painstaking verification process as one of South Korean presidential hopefuls.
According to a Realmeter survey released on Monday, Ban reclaimed the top spot in presidential polls for the first time in eight weeks at 23.3 percent, slightly higher than 23.1 percent of Moon Jae-in, former head of the largest opposition Minjoo Party.
Ban has never officially declared his run for president in home country, but has long been seen as the last remaining hope for conservative voters as there is no distinguished contender found from the conservative bloc.
Ban's press conference in New York last week with South Korean journalists triggered local media speculation that he indicated a candidacy in the next presidential election that is forecast to be held earlier than scheduled after the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.
The indication forced Ban to enter an early verification procedure. The career diplomat, who served as top South Korean diplomat from 2004 to 2006 under late President Roh Moo-hyun, has what political analysts claim is lack of experience in the domestic political scene as his weakest point.
Some regards the inexperience as the strong point of Ban not being tarnished by the corrupt political system, but others cite it as his shortage in capability to overcome attacks from both political rivals and media outlets.
Over the weekend, local weekly magazine Sisa Journal reported that Ban took bribes worth 200,000 U.S. dollars in 2005 as the South Korean foreign minister and 30,000 U.S. dollars in 2007 as the UN chief from a South Korean businessman, citing multiple unidentified sources.
Ban's spokesman sent an unusual press release to South Korean journalists, saying the Sisa Journal report was "completely false and groundless" and that the Ban side will demand apology and the deletion of the article, loca media reports showed.
Read the full story at Xinhua