South Korea considers fielding its top diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon, as the candidate for the next year’s election to select the new secretary general of the United Nations, according to sources Thursday.
``We’ve not yet made a decision, but it is true that the government has reviewed the possibility,’’ a Seoul official said on condition of anonymity. Chong Wa Dae, the presidential office, neither confirmed nor denied it.

The government had originally considered Hong Seok-hyun, the outgoing ambassador to the United States, as a viable candidate.

But the media mogul fell from grace a couple months ago when he was found to have been involved in illicit election campaign activities in 1997.

A career diplomat with in-depth knowledge about the U.N., Ban served as the nation’s chief envoy to the world body from 2001 to 2003 and also acted as the chief secretary to former U.N. General Assembly president Han Seung-soo.

The next U.N. secretary general, the top post at the world organization with a five-year term, will likely be selected those Asian candidates.

So far, a number of hopefuls, including those from Thailand and Sri Lanka, have declared their bids for the election slated for late next year.