INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) — Former U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday (January 12) took a subway on his way back to home in Seoul from Incheon International Airport.
He arrived in South Korea from New York on Thursday afternoon and said he will make a decision soon on his political career, amid expectations he will run in an election that may come early if President Park Geun-hye is forced from office.
Ban, 72 is among front-runners in polls to succeed Park, whose fate will be decided when the Constitutional Court decides whether or not to uphold parliament’s December impeachment of her over an influence-peddling scandal.
The former South Korean Foreign Minister whose 10 years as U.N. secretary-general ended in December, has not said whether he will run for president, nor has he affiliated himself with any party.
Ban’s path to the presidency hit a bump this week when his younger brother, Ban Ki-sang, and nephew, Joo Hyun Bahn, were accused in a Manhattan federal court of a scheme to bribe a Middle Eastern official in connection with the attempted $800 million sale of a building complex in Vietnam.
Ban told Korean reporters in New York on Wednesday (January 11), before his departure for South Korea, that he was dismayed by the affair and had no knowledge of it.
