The UN official opined, "Quiet diplomacy? He [Ban] displayed no skills for that." South African lawyer Nicholas Haysom also defended Ban, saying that the news media "caricatured [Ban] as invisible when he made outspoken comments that the media then failed to report".
2017 presidential candidacy speculation
Until the outbreak of the 2016 South Korean political scandal, Ban was the leading potential candidate for President of South Korea in 2017.
However, recent polls showed Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea in the lead with a support rating of 32.8 percent, while Ban trailed in distant second with 15.4 percent.
Moon was eventually elected president on 10 May. Although Ban repeatedly expressed his desires for running, a UN resolution in 1946 says "a Secretary-General should refrain from accepting" any Governmental position "at any rate immediately on retirement."
Exceptions to the rule have been made in past history with the 1986 election of Kurt Waldheim to the post of President of Austria, although the position is ceremonial in nature.
Contrary to Ban's public comments hinting at any likely run, private reports indicated otherwise. Kim Jong-pil, former Prime Minister of South Korea, was reported to say that Ban Ki-moon would announce his candidacy for the presidency shortly after his term as Secretary-General ends.
Ban was originally predicted to run under the conservative Saenuri Party, but President Park Geyn-hye's scandal cast doubts as to which party Ban would run under.
Ban returned to South Korea on 13 January 2017. On 1 February 2017 he announced he would not be a candidate for president.
Post-U.N. work
In 2017, Ban and Heinz Fischer, former president of Austria, founded, and are co-chairs of, the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens in Vienna, Austria. The nonprofit group's mission is to support youth and women, working within the UN's Sustainable Development Goal frameworks.
In early 2018, Ban was elected to lead the Global Green Growth Institute, a treaty-based intergovernmental organization. Effective Feb. 20, 2018, he is serving a 2-year term in the dual roles of President of the Assembly and Chair of the Council.
Personal life
Family
Ban Ki-moon met Yoo Soon-taek in 1962 when they were both in high school. Ban was 18 years old, and Yoo Soon-taek was his secondary school's student council president. Ban Ki-moon married Yoo Soon-taek in 1971.
They have three adult children: two daughters and a son.
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