His elder daughter, Seon-yong, was born in 1972 and now works for the Korea Foundation in Seoul. Her spouse is a native of India.
His son Woo-hyun was born in 1974 in India.
He received an MBA from Anderson School of Management at University of California, Los Angeles, and works for an investment firm in New York.
His younger daughter, Hyun-hee (born 1976), is a field officer for UNICEF in Nairobi.
After his election as Secretary-General, Ban became an icon in his hometown, where his extended family still resides. Over 50,000 gathered in a soccer stadium in Chungju for celebration of the result.
In the months following his election, thousands of practitioners of geomancy went to his village to determine how it produced such an important person.
Ban himself is not a member of any church or religious group and has declined to expound his beliefs: "Now, as Secretary-General, it will not be appropriate at this time to talk about my own belief in any particular religion or god. So maybe we will have some other time to talk about personal matters." His mother is Buddhist.
On 10 January 2017, Ban's brother Ban Ki-sang and nephew Bahn Joo-hyun have been indicted on U.S. charges that they engaged in a scheme to bribe a Middle Eastern official in connection with the attempted $800 million sale of a building complex in Vietnam.
On 6 September 2018, Bahn Joo-hyun was sentenced to six months in prison in Manhattan federal court.
Personality
During his tenure at the South Korean Foreign Ministry, Ban's nickname wasjusa, meaning "the administrative clerk". The name was used as both positive and negative: complimenting Ban's attention to detail and administrative skill while deriding what was seen as a lack of charisma and subservience to his superiors.
The South Korean press corps calls him "the slippery eel" , for his ability to dodge questions. His peers praise his understated "Confucian approach",and he is regarded by many as a "stand-up guy" and is known for his "easy smile".
After he assumed a post of United Nations secretary general, he was caricatured as "invisible man", "powerless observer", or "nowhere man" for his lack of powerful personality and leadership.
Honours and awards
ROK Order of Service Merit (1st Class) Blue Stripes.png
Ban Ki-moon was awarded the Order of Service Merit, 1st class, by the government of South Korea on three occasions: in 1975, 1986 and 2006.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
