By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 10 -- As South and North Korea exchange fire near the Northern Limit Line and Yeonpyeong Island, the irony of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sejour in South Korea for the coming days may deserve more notice than it's gotten.
When Ban became Secretary General five years ago, many thought that the award of the top UN post to a former South Korean minister of foreign affairs and trade would help improve matters between Seoul and North Korea.
Five months into Ban's tenure atop the UN, in May 2007, he was angered by the leak to Inner City Press of ainternal memo ("Korea Peninsula UN Policy and Strategy Submission to the Policy Committee") proposing that the UN use its "comparative advantage" to become central to a de-escalation between the two Koreas.
But little was done, and in March 2010 the South Korean warship Cheonan was torpedoed, killing 46 sailors.
In November 2010, North Korea barraged Yeonpyeong Island, the first such attack since the end of the Korean war in 1953, killed four South Koreans, including two civilians.
When a North Korean delegation recently visited New York, staying in the Millennium Hotel just across First Avenue from the UN, Ban Ki-moon had little to say, and did not list any meetings with them.
Now, amid Ban's sejour in his native South Korea -- on August 9, his acting deputy spokesman Farhan Haq was unable or unwilling to provide Inner City Press with any information about Ban giving a UN job to another South Korea, click here for that -- this exchange of fire occurs. What will Ban do? Watch this site.
